Cells were lysed in the RIPA buffer (#sc-24948; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) with protease inhibitor cocktail (#P8340; Sigma-Aldrich) and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail (#P0044; Sigma-Aldrich) and western blotting analysis was performed. Briefly, cell lysates were denatured by boiling the sample at 95 °C for 5 min and resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Proteins were transferred to Amersham Hybond-P polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (#10600023; GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Germany) and blocked with 5% non-fat milk in TBS buffer with 0.1% Tween-20 (TBST) at room temperature for 1 h. The membranes were then sliced according to the molecular weights and incubated with primary antibodies at 4 °C overnight, washed with TBST, and incubated with horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated secondary antibodies at room temperature for 2 h. Signals were detected by SuperSignal™ West Pico PLUS Chemiluminescent Substrate (#34579; Thermo Fisher Scientific). The primary antibodies, including anti-TERT (H-231), anti-BRAF (F-7), anti-ERK (K-23), anti-GABPA (H-180), anti-GABPB (E-7), anti-c-FOS (H-125), anti-phospho-c-FOS (34E4), anti-MYC (9E10), and anti-β-actin (C-4) were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA). The anti-phospho-ERK1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204) antibody was purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Beverly, MA). HRP-linked secondary antibodies, including anti-mouse IgG (#7076S) and anti-rabbit IgG (#7074S), were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology. All uncropped western blotting images are shown in Supplementary Figs. 3−8.