Abstract

Whether and how human tumours are genetically unstable has been debated for decades. There is now evidence that most cancers may indeed be genetically unstable, but that the instability exists at two distinct levels. In a small subset of tumours, the instability is observed at the nucleotide level and results in base substitutions or deletions or insertions of a few nucleotides. In most other cancers, the instability is observed at the chromosome level, resulting in losses and gains of whole chromosomes or large portions thereof. Recognition and comparison of these instabilities are leading to new insights into tumour pathogenesis.

Keywords

Chromosome instabilityGenome instabilityBiologyInstabilityNucleotideGeneticsChromosomeCancerCancer researchGeneDNADNA damagePhysics

MeSH Terms

Chromosome AberrationsGene AmplificationHumansNeoplasmsTranslocationGenetic

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Publication Info

Year
1998
Type
review
Volume
396
Issue
6712
Pages
643-649
Citations
4148
Access
Closed

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4148
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Cite This

Christoph Lengauer, Kenneth W. Kinzler, Bert Vogelstein (1998). Genetic instabilities in human cancers. Nature , 396 (6712) , 643-649. https://doi.org/10.1038/25292

Identifiers

DOI
10.1038/25292
PMID
9872311

Data Quality

Data completeness: 81%