BackgroundSome membrane proteins can translocate into the nucleus, defined as nuclear localized membrane proteins (NLMPs), including receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). We previously showed that nuclear MET (nMET), a member of RTKs, mediates cancer stem-like cells self-renewal to promote cancer recurrence. However, it is unknown that nMET or mMET, which is the ancestor in the evolution of cancer cell survival and clearance. Here, we aim to study the NLMP functions in cell death, differentiation and survival.MethodWe applied the systematic reanalysis of functional NLMP and clinical investigations of nMET from databases. In addition, we used soft agar assay, immunoblotting, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy for examinations of nMET functions including stem-like cell formation, cell signaling, cell cycle regulation, and co-localization with regulators of cell signaling. ShRNA, antibody of recognizing surface membrane MET based treatment were used to downregulate endogenous nMET to uncover its function.ResultsWe predicted and demonstrated that nMET and nEGFR are most likely not ancestors. nMET overexpression induces both cell death and survival with drug resistance and stem cell-like characters. Moreover, the paradoxical function of nMET in both cell death and cell survival is explained by the fact that nMET induces stem cell-like cell growth, DNA damage repair, to evade the drug sensitization for survival of single cells while non-stem cell-like nMET expressing single cells may undergo clearance by cell death through cell cycle arrest induced by p21.ConclusionTaken together, our data suggest a link between nuclear RTK and cancer cell evolutionary clearance via cell death, and drug resistance for survival through stemness selection. Targeting evolved nuclear RTKs in cancer stem cells would be a novel avenue for precision cancer therapy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-1004-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Ленинградский государственный университет им. А.С. Пушкина 2 Всероссийский научноисследовательский институт генетики и разведения животных 3 Всероссийский центр экстренной и радиационной медицины им. А.М. Никифорова МЧС России, РФ, Санкт-Петербург 4 Республиканский научнопрактический центр радиационной медицины и экологии человека, Республика Беларусь, Гомель Ключевые слова: рак щитовидной железы, аномалии ядер, межъядерные мосты, авария на ЧАЭС.