Abstract
Today, most cancer diagnoses are made by pathologists on the basis of classic histological features of histomorphological alterations of tissue or single cells. Recent insights into the molecular biology of cancer, particularly the discovery of oncogenes and — probably more importantly — tumor suppressor genes, imply new concepts for the detection of premalignant changes and early cancer. For most tumors, a multistage model of tumor development is proposed, in which one or several steps of genetic alterations most likely precede the first morphological changes of the premalignant or early tumor cell, respectively. The ultimate challenge for the pathologist remains the detection of changes associated with high risk of malignant cell transformation before the occurrence of phenotypic changes. The methods necessary accomplish this goal should be applicable in “routine diagnosis.”
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Höfler, H., Lohmann, D. (1992). Molecular Genetic Approaches to Early Cancer Detection. In: Bannasch, P. (eds) Cancer Diagnosis. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76899-6_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76899-6_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54503-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76899-6
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