Decision Letter: ETS Family Transcriptional Regulators Drive Chromatin Dynamics and Malignancy in Squamous Cell Carcinomas
October 2015
TLDR ETS2 drives cancer progression in squamous cell carcinoma and is linked to poor patient outcomes.
The study by Yang, Schramek et al. revealed that in squamous cell carcinoma stem cells (SCC-SCs), super-enhancers were distinct from those in normal skin stem cells, driving a unique gene expression profile associated with cancer progression. The transcription factor ETS2 was identified as a significant driver of squamous cell carcinoma, binding to these super-enhancers and reprogramming gene expression to promote malignancy. High ETS2 levels were associated with poor outcomes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients, suggesting potential targets for future cancer therapies. The study also found that the super-enhancer landscape in SCC-SCs was distinct from that in hair follicle stem cells, with 340 genes linked to 350 super-enhancers, and identified ETS, SOX, and AP1 as significant transcription factor motifs, with ETS2 being particularly crucial.
