Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and researchers are hard at work to understand the disease’s complex molecular underpinnings. In a new study out this month in the journal Cell Reports, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania describe two related genes in the Musashi family that are required for colon cancer to develop, and that may be useful targets for effective treatment.

The work, led by Christopher Lengner, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, challenges a paradigm in the field whereby activation of a molecular signaling cascade known as the Wnt pathway is held responsible for the majority of colon cancer cases in humans. The new findings suggest that the Musashi genes, MSI1 and MSI2, act in a path parallel to the Wnt pathway and may be equally important for driving colon cancer.

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