Rozita Yarmand on Tumor Suppressor Gene in Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Rozita Yarmand, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses how ATF4 targets RET for degradation and is a candidate tumor suppressor gene in medullary thyroid cancer.

Researchers were interested in exploring the genomic abnormalities in medullary thyroid cancer. Through this analysis, it was determined that, in chromosome 22, there are tumor suppressor genes, one of which is called ATF4. Researchers also found that these tumors could have loss or decrease of level of this protein.

Additionally, patients with low expression of ATF4 have poor overall survival compared with patients of high levels of ATF4 expression. In exploring the mechanism of action of ATF4, it was found that overexpression of ATF4 leads to cancer cell death by degradation of protein, which is an oncogenic driver.