Abstract
The process of cell transformation is a multistep phenomenon. Increasing evidence suggests that a small set of cellular genes appear to be targets for genetic alterations that contribute to the neoplastic transformation of cells. The development of neoplastia may, in many cases, require changes in at least two classes of cellular genes: proto-oncogenes (Bishop, 1987; Anderson and Reynolds, 1989) and tumor suppressor genes (Weinberg, 1989; Hansen and Cavenee, 1988; Barrett, 1987). For example, both the activation of ras oncogenes and the inactivation of several suppressor genes have been observed in the development of human colon tumors (Stanbridge, 1990) and human lung tumors (Tabahashi et al., 1989; Weston et al., 1989; Reynolds et al., 1989; Minna et al., 1989; Rodenhuis et al., 1988). These two examples illustrate that a cell accumulates several types of genetic alterations in its evolution to a malignant phenotype. The focus of this chapter is to discuss the activation of proto-oncogens in human and rodent tumors and the pattern of mutations in ras oncogenes detected in human and rodent tumors.
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Anderson, M.W., You, M., Reynolds, S.H. (1991). Proto-Oncogene Activation in Rodent and Human Tumors. In: Witmer, C.M., Snyder, R.R., Jollow, D.J., Kalf, G.F., Kocsis, J.J., Sipes, I.G. (eds) Biological Reactive Intermediates IV. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 283. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5877-0_23
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