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Cancer genetics: from Boveri and Mendel to microarrays

Abstract

The human genome has now been sequenced, a century after the re-discovery of Mendel's Laws, and the publication of Theodor Boveri's chromosomal theory of heredity. Tracing the historical landmarks of cancer genetics from these early days to the present time not only gives us an appreciation of how far we have come, but also emphasizes the challenges that we face if we are to unravel the genetic basis of hereditary and sporadic cancers in the next century.

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Figure 1: A portrait of Theodor Boveri.
Figure 2: Multiple cell poles cause unequal segregation of chromosomes.

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Acknowledgements

Work in the author's laboratory has been supported mainly by the Cancer Research Campaign (UK) and by the National Cancer Institute (USA). I am grateful to colleagues and the anonymous reviewers for useful comments on the manuscript.

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DATABASE LINKS

CancerNet

chronic myeloid leukaemia

LocusLink

APC

BRCA1

BRCA2

HRAS

TP53

Trp53

RB

 OMIM

hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer

xeroderma pigmentosum

FURTHER INFORMATION

Theodor Boveri

Baltzer on Boveri

Computer models of cellular signalling

Human Genome Sequence

Mendel's Genetics

MendelWeb

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Balmain, A. Cancer genetics: from Boveri and Mendel to microarrays. Nat Rev Cancer 1, 77–82 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35094086

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