Non-redundancy within the RAS oncogene family: insights into mutational disparities in cancer.

The RAS family of oncoproteins has been studied extensively for almost three decades. While we know that activation of RAS represents a key feature of malignant transformation for many cancers, we are only now beginning to understand the complex underpinnings of RAS biology. Here, we will discuss emerging cancer genome sequencing data in the context of what is currently known about RAS function. Taken together, retrospective studies of primary human tissues and prospective studies of experimental models support the notion that the variable mutation frequencies exhibited by the RAS oncogenes reflect unique functions of the RAS oncoproteins.