Splicing and Dicing MYC-Mediated Synthetic Lethality

In a recent issue of Nature, Hsu and colleagues report that oncogenic MYC activation is synthetic lethal with inhibition of the core spliceosome, because MYC-driven growth and increased transcription leave tumors dependent on pre-mRNA processing for survival. As direct targeting of MYC has remained elusive, synthetic lethal strategies are attractive.