Transcriptional regulation of cellular senescence

Cellular senescence is an irreversible arrest of proliferation. It is activated when a cell encounters stress such as DNA damage, telomere shortening or oncogene activation. Like apoptosis, it impedes tumour progression and acts as a barrier that pre-neoplastic cells must overcome during their evolution toward the full tumourigenic state. This review focuses on the role of transcriptional regulators in the control of cellular senescence, explores how their function is perturbed in cancer and discusses the potential to harness this knowledge for future cancer therapies. Oncogene (2011) 30, 2901-2911; doi:10.1038/onc.2011.34; published online 7 March 2011