Visualizing active signaling in cancer

Cancer The receptor tyrosine kinase epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) can be aberrantly activated in diverse cancers. The ability to identify tumors with increased EGFR activity should improve the personalization of therapies. However, genetic analysis fails to identify such tumors if the increase in activity is not due to mutations in EGFR-encoding genes. Smith et al. developed an assay to detect the interaction between EGFR and the adaptor protein GRB2 as a marker for EGFR signaling. This assay detected active EGFR signaling in tumors with normal EGFR, which would have been undetectable by genetic analysis. Moreover, using this assay, the researchers could predict therapeutic response to EGFR inhibitors in both mice and humans. Sci. Signal. 8 , ra4 (2015).