Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Dec 3.
Published in final edited form as: Cell. 2008 Jul 25;134(2):215–230. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.07.001

Figure 2. TGFβ and Tumor Progression.

Figure 2

TGFβ induces tumor-suppressive effects that cancer cells must circumvent in order to develop into malignancies. Cancer cells can take two alternative paths to this end: (1) decapitate the pathway with receptor-inactivating mutations or (2) selectively amputate the tumor-suppressive arm of the pathway. The latter path allows cancer cells to extract additional benefits by co-opting the TGFβ response for protumorigenic purposes. In both cases, cancer cells can use TGFβ to modulate the microenvironment to avert immune surveillance or to induce the production of protumorigenic cytokines.