Oncogene-induced mitotic stress: p53 and pRb get mad too.

Oncogenic signaling frequently results in unscheduled overexpression of cell cycle proteins and replicative stress. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Schvartzman et al. show that inactivation of p53 or pRb induces Mad2, and the overexpression of this mitotic checkpoint protein is a necessary event during oncogene-induced mitotic stress.