Cancer, blueprint of a tumor / Michael Dean, Karobi Moitra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dean, Michael Carlton, author.

Moitra, Karobi, author.

Series:

Colloquium digital library of life sciences

Colloquium series on the genetic basis of human disease ; # 9.

Colloquium series on the genetic basis of human disease ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cancer cells.

Cancer.

Neoplasms.

Medical Subjects:

Neoplasms.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 76 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

[San Rafael, California] : Morgan & Claypool, 2018.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.

text file

Summary:

Scientists are deciphering the biology of the tumor cell at a level of detail that would have been hard to imagine just a decade or so ago. The development of high-throughput DNA sequencing and genomics technologies have allowed an understanding of the development, growth, survival, and spread of cancer cells in the body. From this information, we now have a basic blueprint or roadmap of how a single damaged cell can develop into a pre-malignant lesion, a primary tumor, and finally, a lethal tumor that may spread throughout the body and resist both medical therapy and host immune responses. In this book, we provide an overview of our current understanding of this cancer blueprint, which has been aided both by the study of familial cancer syndromes, in vitro studies of cancer cells, and animal models. Three classes of genes have emerged from these studies: tumor suppressor genes needed for normal growth control and DNA repair; oncogenes that regulate cell growth and survival, and epigenetic modifiers, enzymes that regulate the modification of DNA and the proteins that form chromatin. Each of these three classes of genes is mutated or altered at least once in virtually all malignant cancer cells. Current technologies permit the DNA sequencing of cancer exomes (coding gene sequencing), whole genomes, transcriptome (all expressed genes), and DNA methylation profiling. These studies show that all tumors have unique constellations of mutated, rearranged, amplified, and deleted genes. Single-cell sequencing further shows that there is extensive variation in individual cells in the tumor; that cancers evolve, and have many of the properties of a multi-cellular entity. Lastly, cancer cells, through mutations in epigenetic modifiers, can reprogram the genome and unlock entire developmental and gene expression pathways to adapt and survive in changing conditions. This reprogramming allows the tumor to elude the host body's defenses, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy that we use in cancer treatment. Understanding this cancer blueprint paves the way for the development of future therapies to treat and eliminate cancer.

Contents:

1. The journey from a cancer cell to a lethal tumor

1.1 What is cancer?

2. Inherited cancer syndromes

2.1 The role of tumor suppressor genes

3. Cancer viruses, mutations, and oncogenes

4. Cancer genome sequencing

4.1 Oncogenic driver genes

4.2 Chromatin remodeling genes

4.3 Epigenetic and regulatory changes in cancer

5. Hallmarks of cancer cells

5.1 The cancer stem cell model

5.2 Cancer metastasis: how the cancer cell 'jailbreaks' the genome

6. Single-cell sequencing to understand tumor heterogeneity and evolution

6.1 Evolution and the tumor

7. Stem cells, fetal development, and cancer

8. The tumor microenvironment

9. Chronic infection, aging, and cancer

9.1 Aging and cancer

9.2 DNA damage

9.3 Cell senescence and telomere regulation

9.4 Decreased stem cell activity can lead to aging of the tissue and organ

9.5 The aging immune system and cancer

10. The future of cancer therapy?

10.1 Survival of cancer stem cells

Conclusions

References

Author biographies.

Notes:

Part of: Colloquium digital library of life sciences.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-73).

Title from PDF title page (viewed on January 3, 2019).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781615047956

OCLC:

1080937479

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.