CKIα ablation highlights a critical role for p53 in invasiveness control

The role of p53 in metastasis In a mouse model of intestinal cancer, Yinon Ben-Neriah and colleagues show that in the absence of CK1-α, the loss of p53 dramatically enhances tumour progression and metastasis. The tumour repressor p53 normally limits cancer cell invasion through the regulation of p21 and a set of invasion genes that include Prox1. This study adds more detail to the emerging picture that during tumour development, the p53 gene not only controls cell death and proliferation but also metastasis.