| Abstract: |
The significance of germ-line and somatic genetic changes to the etiology of cancer has been a subject of continuing interest for cancer cell biologists. Recognition of certain basic principles of cancer cell genetics such as the clonal nature of tumors and their dynamic genetic systems were the early results of these studies, which mainly related to chromosomes in tumor cells. Recent advances in techniques of chromosome analysis and the integration of tumor cytogenetics with immunology and molecular genetics have permitted extraordinary insights into the nature of the perturbations that gene structure and function undergo in cancer cells. These developments have been reviewed here in so far as they address the central issue of cancer genetics, namely, the role of somatic and gerrn-line chromosome change in the origin and evolution of neopolastic cells. © 1985 Indian Academy of Sciences. |
