We were able to detect the majority of colorectal cancers by analyzing stool DNA for just three genetic markers. Additional work is needed to determine the specificity of these genetic tests for detecting colorectal neoplasia in asymptomatic patients and to more precisely estimate the prevalence of the mutations and sensitivity of the assay.
The
p53
gene is a critical tumor suppressor that is inactivated in a majority of cancers. The central role of p53 in response to stresses such as DNA damage, hypoxia, and oncogene activation underlies this high frequency of negative selection during tumorigenic transformation. Mutations in
p53
disrupt checkpoint responses to DNA damage and result in the potential for destabilization of the genome. Consistent with this,
p53
mutant cells have been shown to accumulate genomic alterations in cell culture, mouse models, and some human tumors. The relationship between p53 mutation and genomic instability in human osteosarcoma is addressed in this report. Similar to some other primary human tumors, the mutation of
p53
correlates significantly with the presence of high levels of genomic instability in osteosarcomas. Surprisingly, osteosarcomas harboring an amplification of the
HDM2
oncogene, which inhibits the tumor-suppressive properties of
p53
, do not display high levels of genomic instability. These results demonstrate that the inactivation of p53 in osteosarcomas directly by mutation versus indirectly by
HDM2
amplification may have different cellular consequences with respect to the stability of the genome.
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