Clinical Implications of the p53 Tumor-Suppressor Gene

The crucial differences between normal cells and cancer cells stem from discrete changes in specific genes controlling proliferation and tissue homeostasis. Over 100 such cancer-related genes have been discovered, several of which are implicated in the natural history of human cancer because they are consistently found to be mutated in tumors. The p53 tumor-suppressor gene is the most striking example because it is mutated in about half of almost all types of cancer arising from a wide spectrum of tissues. Other tumor-suppressor genes important in human cancers, such as adenomatous polyposis coli, Wilms' tumor type 1, and neurofibromatosis type 1, . . .