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Cancer

Stuck at first base

Nature volume 419, pages 127–128 (2002)Cite this article

People with the genetic disease Peutz–Jeghers syndrome have many intestinal polyps — benign tissue outgrowths. These seldom become malignant, and the reason may lie in the properties of the affected gene.

Several inherited human diseases are characterized by the formation of polyps in the gut. Polyps are benign outgrowths of tissue with a disordered structure. In some of these diseases, the polyps undergo transformation into malignant gastrointestinal tumours — but this occurs relatively rarely in Peutz–Jeghers syndrome. In an effort to understand why, Bardeesy and colleagues1 (page 162 of this issue) have produced mice carrying mutations in the mouse counterpart of the LKB1 gene, which is affected in the human syndrome. The authors' studies of these animals have thrown up some unexpected findings.

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Figure 1: Development of intestinal cancer from intestinal polyps.
Figure 2: A different type of tumour suppressor?

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  1. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, UK

    Louise van der Weyden, Jos Jonkers & Allan Bradley

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  1. Louise van der Weyden
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  2. Jos Jonkers
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  3. Allan Bradley
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van der Weyden, L., Jonkers, J. & Bradley, A. Stuck at first base. Nature 419, 127–128 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419127a

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