| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |

From the Department of Biological Sciences,* Program in Molecular and Computational Biology, and the Department of Pathology,
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Multistep carcinogenesis through sequential cycles of mutation and clonal succession is usually described as tumor progression, or the clonal evolution of tumor cell populations. However, many mutations found in cancers are also compatible with normal appearing phenotypes and therefore genetic progression may precede tumor progression. To better characterize such pretumor progression (mutations in the absence of visible phenotypic changes), a quantitative model was developed that postulates most oncogenic cancer mutations first accumulate in normal appearing colon crypt niche stem cells. Each crypt contains multiple stem cells, and random niche stem cell loss with replacement eventually leads to the loss of all stem cell lineages except one. This niche succession or crypt clonal evolution is similar to the clonal succession of tumor progression except it does not require selection or change visible phenotype. Mutations may sequentially accumulate during stem cell clonal evolution either through drift (passenger mutations) or selection. To determine the feasibility of pretumor progression, mutation rates sufficient to recreate the epidemiology of colorectal cancer were estimated. Pretumor progression may completely substitute for visible tumor progression because it is theoretically possible for all cancer mutations to first accumulate in normal appearing colon with normal replication fidelity. Elevated mutation rates or tumorigenesis may be unnecessary for early progression.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
R. Meza, J. Jeon, S. H. Moolgavkar, and E. G. Luebeck Age-specific incidence of cancer: Phases, transitions, and biological implications PNAS, October 21, 2008; 105(42): 16284 - 16289. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D. Frumkin, A. Wasserstrom, S. Itzkovitz, T. Stern, A. Harmelin, R. Eilam, G. Rechavi, and E. Shapiro Cell Lineage Analysis of a Mouse Tumor Cancer Res., July 15, 2008; 68(14): 5924 - 5931. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
N. J. Maitland and A. T. Collins Prostate Cancer Stem Cells: A New Target for Therapy J. Clin. Oncol., June 10, 2008; 26(17): 2862 - 2870. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
W W J de Leng, M Jansen, J J Keller, M de Gijsel, A N A Milne, F H M Morsink, M A J Weterman, C A Iacobuzio-Donahue, H C Clevers, F M Giardiello, et al. Peutz Jeghers syndrome polyps are polyclonal with expanded progenitor cell compartment Gut, October 1, 2007; 56(10): 1475 - 1476. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
F. F. Costa, K. Le Blanc, and B. Brodin Concise Review: Cancer/Testis Antigens, Stem Cells, and Cancer Stem Cells, March 1, 2007; 25(3): 707 - 711. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
H. K. Roy, Y. L. Kim, Y. Liu, R. K. Wali, M. J. Goldberg, V. Turzhitsky, J. Horwitz, and V. Backman Risk Stratification of Colon Carcinogenesis through Enhanced Backscattering Spectroscopy Analysis of the Uninvolved Colonic Mucosa Clin. Cancer Res., February 1, 2006; 12(3): 961 - 968. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K.-M. Kim, P. Calabrese, S. Tavare, and D. Shibata Enhanced Stem Cell Survival in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Am. J. Pathol., April 1, 2004; 164(4): 1369 - 1377. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. Calabrese, J.-L. Tsao, Y. Yatabe, R. Salovaara, J.-P. Mecklin, H. J. Jarvinen, L. A. Aaltonen, S. Tavare, and D. Shibata Colorectal Pretumor Progression Before and After Loss of DNA Mismatch Repair Am. J. Pathol., April 1, 2004; 164(4): 1447 - 1453. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |