Cholesterol pathway the Achilles heel in prostate cancer metastasis

We read with great interest the research article by Chen et al. (1) published in a previous issue of Nature Genetics as well as the featured article in the “clinical implication for basic research section” of the New England Journal of Medicine by Abate-Shen (2) arguing that the lipogenic program is essential for promotion of metastatic prostate cancer (PC) formation. Chen et al. provide profound genetic data that loss of PTEN and PML induce a sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) dependent lipogenic program leading to formation of more aggressive PC phenotypes.