RON receptor involved in Pancreatic Cancer

Recepteur d’Origine Nantais, or RON receptor tyrosine kinase and its ligand, macrophage-stimulating protein, have been long implicated in progression and metastasis of tumors including breast cancer. Now comes a study from the scientists Andrew Lowy, MD, and Susan Waltz, PhD, at University of Cincinnati that implicates involvement of RON in aggressive pancreatic tumors.

From their press release

The team found that the RON receptor was active in 93 percent of what is known as pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, an early form of pancreatic duct cancer. In addition, the receptor was present in 79 percent of primary pancreatic cancers and 83 percent of metastatic cancers

You can get the July 1 issue of Cancer Research to read the entire article. Articles are posted free online after three to four weeks of publication. Look for Ryan Thomas, et al publication titled, "The RON Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Mediates Oncogenic Phenotypes in Pancreatic Cancer Cells and is Increasingly Expressed during Pancreatic Cancer Progression"