EIF4E and cancer: In GB, the MNK1-eIF4E axis regulates the translation of cancer-related mRNAs such as SMAD2, a key component of the TGF-β signaling pathway (Grzmil et al., 2011), and MNK1/2 are overexpressed in primary GB and glioma cells (Bredel et al., 2005; Grzmil et al., 2011; Xu et al., 2021).