Opposing roles of NF-κB in anti-cancer treatment outcome unveiled by cross-species investigations

In malignancies, enhanced nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activity is largely viewed as an oncogenic property that also confers resistance to chemotherapy. Recently, NF-κB has been postulated to participate in a senescence-associated and possibly senescence-reinforcing cytokine response, thereby suggesting a tumor-restraining role for NF-κB. Using a mouse lymphoma model and analyzing transcriptome and clinical data from lymphoma patients, we show here that therapy-induced senescence presents with and depends on active NF-κB signaling, whereas NF-κB simultaneously promotes resistance to apoptosis. Further characterization and genetic engineering of primary mouse lymphomas according to distinct NF-κB-related oncogenic networks reminiscent of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) subtypes guided us to identify Bcl2-overexpressing germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) DLBCL as a clinically relevant subgroup with significantly superior outcome when NF-κB is hyperactive. Our data illustrate the power of cross-species investigations to functionally test genetic mechanisms in transgenic mouse tumors that recapitulate distinct features of the corresponding human entity, and to ultimately use the mouse model-derived genetic information to redefine novel, clinically relevant patient subcohorts.