Review
Nature Reviews Cancer 1, 55-67 (October 2001) | doi:10.1038/35094067
APC, Signal transduction and genetic instability in colorectal cancer
Riccardo Fodde1, Ron Smits1 & Hans Clevers2 About the authors
Abstract
Colorectal cancer arises through a gradual series of histological changes, each of which is accompanied by a specific genetic alteration. In general, an intestinal cell needs to comply with two essential requirements to develop into a cancer: it must acquire selective advantage to allow for the initial clonal expansion, and genetic instability to allow for multiple hits in other genes that are responsible for tumour progression and malignant transformation. Inactivation of APC — the gene responsible for most cases of colorectal cancer — might fulfil both requirements.
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Author affiliations
- Department of Human and Clinical Genetics, and Center for Biomedical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9503, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Department of Immunology, and Center for Biomedical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, P.O. Box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Correspondence to: Riccardo Fodde1 Email: r.fodde@lumc.nl
