Tumor Suppressor Genes

Overview Cancer is a genetic disease. Mutations and other alterations in growth promoting genes (oncogenes) and tumor suppressor genes can accumulate during the lifetime of a normal cell resulting in cancer. Unlike oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes generally require biallelic inactivation in order to demonstrate a cancerous phenotype. Importantly, the discovery of heritable tumor suppressor gene mutations that lead to familial forms of cancer has revealed great insight into tumor suppressor function. This has clinical screening implications for individuals with a family history of cancer and has led to newer therapies to target cancer cells with loss of specific tumor suppressors.