Persistent expression of certain oncogenes is required for
tumor maintenance. This phenotype is referred to as
oncogene addiction and has been clinically validated by anticancer
therapies that specifically inhibit
oncoproteins such as BCR-ABL, c-Kit, HER2, PDGFR, and EGFR. Identifying additional genes that are required for
tumor maintenance may lead to new targets for anticancer drugs. Although the role of aberrant Wnt pathway activation in the initiation of
colorectal cancer has been clearly established, it remains unclear whether sustained Wnt pathway activation is required for
colorectal tumor maintenance. To address this question, we used inducible β-
catenin shRNAs to temporally control Wnt pathway activation in vivo. Here, we show that active Wnt/β-
catenin signaling is required for maintenance of
colorectal tumor xenografts harboring APC mutations. Reduced
tumor growth upon β-
catenin inhibition was due to cell cycle arrest and differentiation. Upon reactivation of the Wnt/β-
catenin pathway
colorectal cancer cells resumed proliferation and reacquired a crypt progenitor phenotype. In human colonic
adenocarcinomas, high levels of nuclear β-
catenin correlated with crypt progenitor but not
differentiation markers, suggesting that the Wnt/β-
catenin pathway may also control
colorectal tumor cell fate during the maintenance phase of
tumors in patients. These results support efforts to treat human
colorectal cancer by pharmacological inhibition of the Wnt/β-
catenin pathway.