Tumor-Suppressor Genes

Excerpt

Tumor suppressor genes are important genes that act within the genome to regulate several cellular functions. These genes can be broadly classified based on their role in cell growth/cell cycle progression, cell proliferation, DNA repair mechanisms, and other crucial cellular signaling functions such as the apoptosis induction. Without functional tumor suppressor genes, there is a high risk of dysregulated cell growth that is a well-known mechanism for the development of cancers. Loss of function mutations in tumor suppressor genes has been identified in many types of cancers, including ovarian, lung, colorectal, head and neck, pancreatic, uterine, breast, and bladder cancer. There are even familial cancer syndromes associated with the loss of function germline mutations of specific tumor suppressor genes like Li-Fraumeni syndrome with the loss of TP53. Extensive research is underway to understand these genes and their relationship to cancers to facilitate the development of novel targets for specific cancer types.