Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Dec:59:66-79.
doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Feb 7.

Mechanisms of PTEN loss in cancer: It's all about diversity

Virginia Álvarez-Garcia  1 , Yasmine Tawil  1 , Helen M Wise  1 , Nicholas R Leslie  2
Affiliations
Review

Mechanisms of PTEN loss in cancer: It's all about diversity

Virginia Álvarez-Garcia et al. Semin Cancer Biol. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

PTEN is a phosphatase which metabolises PIP3, the lipid product of PI 3-Kinase, directly opposing the activation of the oncogenic PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling network. Accordingly, loss of function of the PTEN tumour suppressor is one of the most common events observed in many types of cancer. Although the mechanisms by which PTEN function is disrupted are diverse, the most frequently observed events are deletion of a single gene copy of PTEN and gene silencing, usually observed in tumours with little or no PTEN protein detectable by immunohistochemistry. Accordingly, with the exceptions of glioblastoma and endometrial cancer, mutations of the PTEN coding sequence are uncommon (<10%) in most types of cancer. Here we review the data relating to PTEN loss in seven common tumour types and discuss mechanisms of PTEN regulation, some of which appear to contribute to reduced PTEN protein levels in cancers.

Keywords: Cancer; Mutation; PI 3-Kinase; PTEN; Tumour suppressor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources