The cooperation between p53 and Ras in tumori-genesis

Inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene and activation of the oncogene cooperate to promote the multistep process of tumorigenesis. p53 is considered to be the most important tumor suppressor gene. p53 is usually found as a result of somatic missense mutation in approximately 50% of human cancers. Ras is found to be one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes in human tumors with the reported frequencies ranging from 30% to 90%. It has been found in many studies synergistic effect between tumor suppressor p53 and oncogene Ras occurs during the multistep process of tumorigenesis. According to the current reports, the cooperative effect between p53 and Ras can be divided into three types: the regulation of p53 for Ras function, , the regulation of Ras for p53, and the cooperation between p53 and Ras to control critical genes that are closely related to tumorigenesis. Understanding their synergistic effects will not only help us further disclose mechanism of tumorigenesis caused by p53 inactivation and Ras activation, but also facilitate personalized treatments and pharmacological target selection for cancer therapy. Therefore, we reviewed the recent progress of synergistic effect be-tween p53 and Ras and its role in tumorigenesis.