The Genetic Risks of Cancer: The Effects of DNA, Genomics and Inheritance on Aging and Survival

This book outlines the current understanding of the genetic basis of cancer and describes the major classes of cancer-causing genes that have relevance to clinical practice today: oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and DNA-damage repair genes. Oncogenes are genes, normally involved in cell growth and proliferation, that cause cancer when they are overexpressed, amplified, or mutated. Tumor suppressor genes, on the other hand, normally regulate cell growth, and only result in malignant progression when their negative regulatory controls are impaired or underexpressed. Recently, a third group of genes involved in regulating DNA repair has been implicated in hereditary human cancers. This class of DNA damage response genes shares many of the features of tumor suppressor genes. CHAPTER 2: SIGNALING PATHWAYS IN CANCER Genetic and epigenetic alterations that allow cells to overproliferate and escape mechanisms that normally control their survival and migration are major divers of carcinogenesis. Proliferation, migration and apoptosis are intricate biological processes, generally controlled by biochemical responses of cells to stimuli in their extra-cellular micro-environment. Sequences of intracellular responses, referred to as signal transduction pathways, are generally initiated following binding of extracellular ligands to cell-surface receptors. Signaling cascades incorporate protein effector molecules, which comprise the larger protein complexes of intracellular communication pathways. During intra-cellular signal transduction, signals from one source are processed and passed on to another, downstream intra-cellular protein. Aberrantly functioning intracellular signal-transduction molecules are believed to result in many of the pathologic phenotypes of cancer cells. CHAPTER 3: HEREDITARY BREAST & OVARIAN CANCER One in nine American women who live to age 85 will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. Breast cancer is expected to account for 255,180 new cases and 41,070 deaths in the United States annually (American Cancer Society 2017). Only about 3000 cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women age 30 or younger, and about 2,190 cases are diagnosed in males each year in the United States. CHAPTER 10: GENOMIC COUNSELING AND CANCER RISK ASSESSMENT Scientific and technologic advances in genomics are revolutionizing our approach to genetic counseling and testing, targeted therapy, and cancer screening and prevention, fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine. For physicians, genetic counselors, nurses, and other members of a multidisciplinary cancer care team, the future of personalized medicine is now; however, the current enthusiasm about personalized genomics follows several decades of scientific discovery and clinical translation in human genetics. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1… CANCER AS A GENETIC DISORDER CHAPTER 2 … SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION PATHWAYS CHAPTER 3 … BREAST AND OVARIAN CANCER CHAPTER 4 … LUNG CANCER CHAPTER 5 … COLON CANCER CHAPTER 6 … LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA CHAPTER 7… PROSTATE CANCER CHAPTER 8 … MALIGNANT MELANOMA CHAPTER 9 … RARE HEREDITARY CANCER SYNDROMES ATAXIA TELANGIECTASIA BIRT-HOGG-DUBE SYNDROME BLADDER CANCER BLOOM’S SYNDROME BRAIN TUMORS CARNEY COMPLEX COWDEN SYNDROME FANCONI ANEMIA HEREDITARY DIFFUSE GASTRIC CANCER GASTROINTESTINAL STROMAL TUMORS HEREDITARY PARAGANGLIONOMA JUVENILE POLYPOSIS SYNDROME HEREDITARY LEIOMYOMATOSIS LI-FRAUMENI SYNDROME MULTIPLE ENDOCRINE NEOPLASIAS NEUROBLASTOMA NEUROFIBROMATOSIS PANCREATIC CANCER HEREDITARY PAPILLARY THYROID CANCER PEUTZ-JEGHERS SYNDROME RETINOBLASTOMA TESTICULAR CANCER TUBEROUS SCLEROSIS COMPLEX VON HIPPEL-LINDAU SYNDROME WERNER SYNDROME WILMS TUMOR SYNDROME XERODERMA PIGMENTOSUM ETC. CHAPTER 10 … GENOMIC COUNSELING AND CANCER RISK ASSESSMENT CHAPTER 11 … PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES IN GENETIC CANCER SYNDROMES CHAPTER 12 … ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES – CANCER RISK COUNSELING