Atg7 Overcomes Senescence and Promotes Growth of BrafV600E-Driven Melanoma

The essential autophagy gene Atg7 promotes development of BrafV600E-mutant, Pten-null melanomas by overcoming senescence, and deleting Atg7 facilitated senescence induction and antitumor activity of BRAF inhibition. This suggests that combinatorial BRAFV600E and autophagy inhibition may improve therapeutic outcomes in patients whose tumors have BRAFV600E/K mutations, an approach currently being explored in clinical trials.