Nature Communications (Feb 2017)

Expression of β-globin by cancer cells promotes cell survival during blood-borne dissemination

  • Yu Zheng,
  • David T. Miyamoto,
  • Ben S. Wittner,
  • James P. Sullivan,
  • Nicola Aceto,
  • Nicole Vincent Jordan,
  • Min Yu,
  • Nezihi Murat Karabacak,
  • Valentine Comaills,
  • Robert Morris,
  • Rushil Desai,
  • Niyati Desai,
  • Erin Emmons,
  • John D. Milner,
  • Richard J. Lee,
  • Chin-Lee Wu,
  • Lecia V. Sequist,
  • Wilhelm Haas,
  • David T. Ting,
  • Mehmet Toner,
  • Sridhar Ramaswamy,
  • Shyamala Maheswaran,
  • Daniel A. Haber

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14344
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

Read online

Circulating tumour cells contribute to metastatic spread. Here the authors find that beta-chain of haemoglobin is overexpressed in those cells and protects them from oxidative stress, prolonging their survival in circulation and thereby increasing the likelihood of metastasis formation.