细胞技术

Study design in understanding gene—environment interaction plays a crucial role. Different study designs with their advantages and limitations are described in this chapter. Gene penetrance has been studied in several cancers, including breast and prostate cancer. Compared wi ...

Cancer cells are characterized by epigenetic dysregulation, including global genome hypomethylation, regional hypo- and hypermethylation, histone modifications, and disturbed genomic imprinting. These alterations can be used as markers in cancer epidemiology to assess ...

Regression modeling is one of the most important statistical techniques used in analytical epidemiology. By means of regression models the effect of one or several explanatory variables (e.g., exposures, subject characteristics, risk factors) on a response variable such as mortali ...

ATP (energy production) production is not the only function of the mitochondria. Mitochondria perform multiple cellular functions. Among others, these functions include control of cell death, growth, devel opment, integration of signals from mitochondria to nucleus and nucleus to ...

Many studies have suggested that adenosine diphosphate ribosyl transferase (ADPRT), X-ray repair cross-complementing 1 (XRCC1), and xeroderma pigmentosum complementary group D (XPD) are three major DNA base excision repair (BER) genes and that they act interactively in stimulat ...

Esophageal cancer is a significant worldwide health problem because of its poor prognosis and high incidence in certain parts of the world. Tobacco smoke and alcohol consumption are significant risk factors for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, whereas frequent gastroesophag ...

The specific causes of prostate cancer are not known. However, multiple etiologic factors, including genetic profile, metabolism of steroid hormones, nutrition, chronic inflammation, family history of prostate cancer, and environmental exposures are thought to play signific ...

In 1994, the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8) was identified as the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). KSHV has since been associated with two additional malignancies: primary effusion lymphoma and multicentric Castleman's disease. In this chapter, we d ...

Nearly 40 years have passed since the publication of the first report showing higher cancer risks in recipients of organ transplants. Thereafter, studies carried out in immunosuppressed persons have greatly expanded our knowledge on the spectrum of cancers associated with infectio ...

Because mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV; the Bittner virus) is the proven cause of breast cancer in both field and experimental mice, similar viruses have long been suspects as a potential cause of human breast cancer. MMTV-like viral genetic material has been identified in human breast tumors, b ...

In a worldwide scenario, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the second leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality among women due to its very close association with cervical cancer. More than 100 different types of HPV genotypes have been characterized to date. Among th ...

Recently, it has been shown that epigenetic changes are involved in early stages of tumorigenesis, and they may trigger the genetic events leading to tumor development. In cancer epidemiology, there are several epigenetic alterations involved, such as DNA hypermethylation, DNA hypom ...

Primary lung cancer is very heterogeneous in its clinical presentation, histopathology, and treatment response; and like other diseases, the prognosis consists of two essential facets: survival and quality of life (QOL). Lung cancer survival is mostly determined by disease stage and t ...

Breast cancer is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Although breast cancer is more common among White American (WA) women, incidence rates are higher among young African American (AA) women. Approximately 5–10% of all breast cancer can be accounted for by germl ...

Telomeres are distal ends of human chromosomes composed of tandem repeats of the sequence TTAGGG. Possible functions of telomeres include prevention of chromosome degradation, end-to-end fusions, rearrangements, and chromosome loss. Human telomeres in somatic cells undergo p ...

The processes of DNA replication and transcription are intimately affected by the status of chromatin structure. Proteins bind and dissociate at rapid rates in order to control the levels of activity at the genome. Much work has been done over the years to determine the function of transcription ...

Tumor suppressor proteins, like most proteins, require interacting with other proteins in the cell to function properly. These interacting proteins may be regulators or substrates of this tumor suppressor protein. A tumor suppressor protein may also associate with its interacting p ...

Cellular senescence refers to the response of cells to a variety of stimuli, many of which have the potential to induce preneoplastic or neoplastic phenotypes. These stimuli include dysfunctional telomeres, DNA damage, disrupted chromatin structures, the expression of certain onc ...

Many tumor suppressor genes are known to function at least in part through regulation of the transcription of downstream effector genes (Table 1). A major example of such a transcriptional regulator is p53, one of the most commonly mutated tumor suppressor genes in human cancer (1) and hence one of the ...

With the identification and functional characterization of various tumor suppressor genes, the multiprotein pathways in which they function are beginning to be delineated. Mutations in critical pathways, such as the basal cell cycle machinery, DNA surveillance and repair, apopt ...