New gene forges link between fragile site and many cancers
Pennisi, E.
Science 272(5262): 649
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 8614818 Document Number: 465169
In the past few months, cancer gene experts Carlo Croce, Kay Huebner, and their colleagues at the Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia have reported the discovery of a gene called FHIT that is located at one of the most common fragile sites that might be linked to cancer. They have found that FHIT is either completely or partially missing in a wide variety of common cancers, which suggests that it may be an important tumor suppressor, a gene whose loss or inactivation contributes to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. FHIT gene disruption might not turn out to be the initiating event in tumor growth, but it may still prove to be an indication of a potential cancer that could be used for early diagnosis, according to Thomas Glover, a human geneticist at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.