“…It occurs as a sporadic lesion, or as part of the familial conditions, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and familial in®ltrative ®bromatosis, which are both caused by germ-like mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene (Eccles et al, 1996;Kinzler et al, 1991). We, and others, found somatic APC mutations in a subset of sporadic aggressive ®bromatoses (Alman et al, 1997a;Giarola et al, 1998). One function of the APC gene product is to regulate the cellular level of beta-catenin, which acts in cell adhesion, and is also a mediator in Wnt (Wingless) signaling pathway (Behrens et al, 1998;Papko et al, 1996).…”