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In cancer drug resistance, germline matters too

Cancer genome sequencing projects focus exclusively on the discovery of somatic changes. A new study shows that germline alterations in the proapoptotic protein BIM can have a crucial role in how a tumor responds to treatment (pages 521–528).

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Figure 1: The BCL-2 family proteins control crucial checkpoints of mitochondrion-initiated apoptosis.

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Correspondence to Emily H Cheng or Charles L Sawyers.

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Cheng, E., Sawyers, C. In cancer drug resistance, germline matters too. Nat Med 18, 494–496 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2725

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