Transgenic Approaches to the Analysis of ras and p53 Function in Multistage Carcinogenesis
- C.J. Kemp,
- P.A. Burns*,
- K. Brown,
- H. Nagase, and
- A. Balmain
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The development of cancer in humans, as in animals, is influenced by multiple genes which can act at different stages of tumor development. These genes may exert their effects as a consequence of mutation within somatic cells, subsequently conferring a selective growth advantage upon the cell in which the genetic change took place. This process may either involve a positive growth stimulus, e.g., an increase in the rate of cell proliferation, or alternatively, a loss of a normal program of cell death, e.g., a decrease in the rate of terminal differentiation or apoptosis. In either case, the consequence is that the evolving tumor cells acquire the necessary survival and proliferative capacities to enable them to sustain additional mutations and evolve to further malignancy. The genes involved in these types of somatic alterations have been broadly classified into the categories of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.
Some of these genes may...
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↵* Present address: Jack Birch Unit for Environmental Carcinogenesis, Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, United Kingdom.
