Fragile and unstable chromosomes in cancer: causes and consequences

Cancer cells commonly exhibit various forms of genetic instability, such as changes in chromosome copy number, translocations and point mutations in particular genes. Although transmissible change seems to be an essential part of the neoplastic process, the extent to which DNA instability is a cause...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in Genetics 2001-06, Vol.17 (6), p.339-345
Main Author: Richards, Robert I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
amplification
aneuploidy
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cell physiology
Cell transformation and carcinogenesis. Action of oncogenes and antioncogenes
Cell Transformation, Neoplastic - genetics
Chromosome Fragile Sites
Chromosome Fragility
Chromosome Mapping
Chromosomes, Human - genetics
deletion
fragile sites
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Molecular and cellular biology
Mutation
Neoplasms - genetics
translocation
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Summary:Cancer cells commonly exhibit various forms of genetic instability, such as changes in chromosome copy number, translocations and point mutations in particular genes. Although transmissible change seems to be an essential part of the neoplastic process, the extent to which DNA instability is a cause rather than a consequence of cancer is unclear. Chromosomal fragile sites have been proposed to be not only susceptible to DNA instability in cancer cells, but also associated with genes that contribute to the neoplastic process. Mutation at fragile site loci might therefore have a causative role in cancer. Recent studies on one class of human chromosomal fragile sites show that instability at fragile site loci can functionally contribute to tumor cell biology.
ISSN:0168-9525
DOI:10.1016/S0168-9525(01)02303-4