TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Clinical Cancer Genetics A1 - Boland, C. Richard A1 - Peltomaki, Paivi A2 - Llor, Xavier A2 - Hofstatter, Erin Wysong PY - 2022 T2 - Cancer Genetics: A Clinical Approach AB - Cancer has been recognized as a specific pathological entity since the nineteenth century, and there have been multiple proposed mechanistic explanations for this disease process. Theodor Boveri determined that cancer was a cellular process caused by a scrambling of the chromosomes, and in 1902, he proposed that physical insults such as radiation, chemical agents, or even microbial pathogens might be responsible for this. Over the past 120 years, most of Boveri’s proposed triggers have been linked to cancer. Although abnormalities in chromosomes are frequently found in cancers, the degree of aneuploidy is quite diverse among tumors, and a few cancers are nearly diploid (but may be highly mutated). However, every cancer has genetic aberrations of some sort, and all investigators involved in cancer research agree that cancer is fundamentally a genetic disease. Most cancers are not a result of inherited germline mutations (or epimutations), but all cancers are driven by aberrant gene expression. The variety of ways through which cancers develop and the heterogeneity of genetic alterations in tumors have served to fascinate and perplex those who study the disease. SN - PB - McGraw Hill CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/18 UR - hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182364839 ER -