Cancer gene census

14 August 2004

The Cancer Genome Project team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has trawled through hundreds of research papers to create a new census of cancer genes.

Cancers arise due to changes in the DNA sequence of the human genome, which disrupt the normal mechanisms that control cell proliferation. These sequence variants can be inherited, and result in susceptibility to cancer, or can arise through mutations accumulated throughout life (somatic mutations). For more than 20 years, researchers have been tracking down genes that are implicated in cancer – with considerable success. Many such genes have been identified, and their functions in health and disease assiduously investigated.

The Cancer Genome Project team has identified 291 genes – more than 1 per cent of all human genes – that have been reported to be cancer genes. Of these, approximately 90 per cent exhibit somatic mutations in cancer, 20 per cent bear inherited mutations that predispose to cancer and 10 per cent show both somatic and inherited mutations.

The census is dominated by genes that are activated when chromosomes break and rejoin in new combinations, which can disrupt a gene or activate it aberrantly. These breakages are a common cause of leukaemias, lymphomas and mesenchymal solid tumours.