Perspectives
Nature Reviews Cancer 3, 695-701 (September 2003) | doi:10.1038/nrc1165
Opinion: The significance of unstable chromosomes in colorectal cancer
Harith Rajagopalan1, Martin A. Nowak2, Bert Vogelstein1 & Christoph Lengauer1 About the authors
Abstract
A very large fraction of cancers have an abnormal genetic content, called aneuploidy, which is characterized by changes in chromosome structure and number. One explanation for this aneuploidy is chromosomal instability, in which cancer cells gain or lose whole chromosomes or large fractions of chromosomes at a greatly increased rate compared with normal cells. Here, we explore experimental and theoretical evidence for the initiation of chromosomal instability in very early colorectal cancers, and reflect on the role that chromosomal instability could have in colorectal tumorigenesis.
Author affiliations
- Harith Rajagopalan, Bert Vogelstein, and Christoph Lengauer are at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21231, USA.
- Martin Nowak is at the Institute for Theoretical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Correspondence to: Christoph Lengauer1 Email: lengauer@jhmi.edu
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