Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2007

From a simple observation of Austrian monk Gregor Mendel in 1865, the history of genetics has transitioned from Mendelian genetics, to post-Mendelian genetics, to classical genetics, to molecular genetics. Molecular genetics is driving cancer research and is an integral part of cancer biology. Since the completion of over 90% of the human genome sequence in 2001, a new frontier in molecular medicine has begun to Read More

From biological, histopathologic, and clinical perspectives, lung cancer is a highly complex neoplasm probably having multiple preneoplastic pathways. The sequence of histopathologic changes in the bronchial mucosa that precedes the development of squamous carcinomas of the lung has been identified. For the other major forms of lung cancer, however, such sequences have been poorly documented. This review su Read More

Gastric cancer is thought to result from a combination of environmental factors and the accumulation of specific genetic alterations due to increasing genetic instability, and consequently affects mainly older patients. Less than 10% of patients present with the disease before 45 years of age (early onset gastric carcinoma) and these patients are believed to develop gastric carcinomas with a molecular genetic profile differ Read More

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the Western society, and the incidence is rising. Rare hereditary gastrointestinal polyposis syndromes that predispose to colorectal cancer have provided a model for the investigation of cancer initiation and progression in the general population. Many insights in the molecular genetic basis of cancer have emerged from the study of these syn Read More

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most frequent soft tissue sarcoma in the pediatric population. Two main histopathologic variants have been described, embryonal (ERMS) and alveolar (ARMS), which demonstrate clinical and genetic differences. In particular, most ARMS but not ERMS tumors are characterized by the presence of recurrent chromosomal translocations, which have been cytogenetically defined as t(2;13)(q35;q14) a Read More

The INK4/ARF locus encodes the p15INK4B, p16INK4A and p14ARF tumor suppressor proteins whose loss of function is associated with the pathogenesis of many human cancers. Dissecting the relative contribution of these genes to growth control in vivo is complicated by their physical contiguity and the frequency of homozygous deletions that inactivate all three components of this locus. While genetically engineered m Read More

A subset of tyrosine kinases are activated by mutations which contribute to the malignant transformation, growth, and metastasis of human cancers. Mutations change the expression, conformation and/or stability of tyrosine kinases, often leading to constitutive activation of the signaling pathways the kinases regulate. Given that tyrosine kinases are key members of signaling cascades, mutations have multiple effects on v Read More

The spatial arrangement and three-dimensional structure of DNA in the nucleus is controlled through the interdigitation of DNA binding proteins such as histones and their modifiers, the Polycomb- Trithorax proteins, and the DNA methyltransferase enzymes. DNA methylation forms the foundation of chromatin and is crucial to epigenetic gene regulation in mammals. Disease pathogenesis mediated through infectious ag Read More

The identification of genetic events that are involved in the development of human cancer has been facilitated through the development and application of a diverse series of high resolution, high throughput microarray platforms. Essentially there are two types of array; those that carry PCR products from cloned nucleic acids (e.g. cDNA, BACs, cosmids) and those that use oligonucleotides. Each has advantages and disad Read More

The better part of a century has passed since Otto Warburg first hypothesized that unique phenotypic characteristics of tumor cells might be associated with an impairment in the respiratory capacity of these cells. Since then a number of distinct differences between the mitochondria of normal cells and cancer cells have been observed at the genetic, molecular, and biochemical levels. This article begins with a general o Read More

A revolution is underway in the approach to studying the genetic basis of cancer. Massive amounts of data are now being generated via high-throughput techniques such as DNA microarray technology and new computational algorithms have been developed to aid in analysis. At the same time, standards-based repositories, including the Stanford Microarray Database and the Gene Expression Omnibus have been develope Read More