Effects of the antitumor agent perillyl alcohol on H-Ras vs. K-Ras farnesylation and signal transduction in pancreatic cells.

Background: Perillyl alcohol has chemotherapeutic activity against pancreas cancers that have a K-ras oncogene, and it inhibits the prenylation of Ras and other proteins in many cell types.

Materials And Methods: We tested the hypothesis that perillyl alcohol would impair Ras farnesylation and Ras signal transduction pathways in pancreatic tumor cells.

Results: In B12/13 pancreatic tumor cells that had a K-ras oncogene, perillyl alcohol inhibited total protein prenylation and decreased Ras farnesylation.