Invasive skin carcinoma--Ras and alpha6beta4 integrin lead the way

Although the genesis of invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from stratified epithelia of the skin is considered to be a complex, multistage process, recent work on human epidermis reveals that sustained Ras signaling coupled with suppression of Ras-induced growth arrest is sufficient to drive the entire process and that the alpha6beta4 integrin and its laminin 5 ligand are essential components of this process.