Molecular Targets for Diagnosis and Therapy in Some Human Cancer

Abstract

Cancer is fundamentally a genetic disease. All tumours result from alterations in DNA, which ultimately have the effect of producing unregulated growth. There • are two major classes of cancer causing genes: First, there are oncogenes, or growth promoting genes, whose named actively is necessary for cells to grow and divide. Mutations in oncogenes tend to be phenotypically dominant, that is mutant oncogene will have an effect on the growth of a cell, despite the presence of normal allele. The second class of cancer causing genes is a group of tumour suppressor gene, sometimes referred to as anti­ oncogenes. These are genes whose normal function is to prevent cells from multiplying, as is usually necessary for most cells in a fully differentiated organ. In most cases, mutations in tumour suppressor genes behave as genetic recessives.