For the first time, a mutation in HIF2a, a specific group of genes known as transcription factors that is involved in red blood cell production and cell metabolism, has been identified in cancer tumor cells. Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and the National Institutes of Health found the mutation in tumor cells of two patients with the rare cancers paraganglioma/pheochromocytoma and somatostatinoma. The mutation was previously identified in connection with a non-cancerous hereditary condition, but never before in spontaneously arising cancers. The research results appear in the September 6, 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
