In recent years, “pathway dependence” has been revealed in specifi c types of human cancer, which can be important because they pinpoint proteins that are particularly vulnerable to antitumor-targeted inhibition (so-called Achilles’ heel proteins). Here, we use RNAi technology to identify a novel oncogenic pathway that involves aberrant activation of the TYK2 tyrosine kinase and its
downstream substrate, STAT1, which ultimately promotes T-ALL cell survival through the upregulation of BCL2 expression. Cancer Discov; 3(5); 564–77. ©2013 AACR.