APC shuttling to the membrane, nucleus and beyond

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor is a multi-functional protein, the mutation of which triggers colon cancer progression through de-regulation of the canonical Writ signaling pathway and disruption of the mitotic spindle checkpoint. In recent years, APC has been detected at several unexpected intracellular locations, implicating APC in multiple roles that now include the regulation of directed cell migration, apoptosis and DNA repair. In this review, we discuss the intracellular trafficking pathway of APC and describe how truncated cancer-mutant forms of APC display frequent changes in sub-cellular localization and function. The transport routes of APC overlap that of other tumor suppressors, including BRCA1 and p53, pin-pointing common destinations and functions for these cancer regulators.