HonCode

Go Back   HER2 Support Group Forums > Articles of Interest
Register Gallery FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-05-2006, 03:13 PM   #1
julierene
Senior Member
 
julierene's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Illinois
Posts: 327
Post How key genes become defective - very interesting article

http://www.medschool.lsuhsc.edu/gene...cle_cancer.htm

How key genes become defective. The answer to the question "How did I get cancer?" is very often difficult to address. For those who smoke cigarettes and develop lung cancer, the answer is clear: The chemicals in the cigarette smoke caused mutations in key genes in the cells of your lungs and led to the formation of lung cancer. If you had never smoked, or if you had quit smoking at an early age, you probably would not have developed lung cancer. However, for a young woman who exercises and eats correctly but who develops breast cancer at age 41, the question is much more difficult to answer in an acceptable fashion. We know that mutations occurred in key genes in the cells of her breast, but identifying the source of those mutations is often impossible. The newly diagnosed woman is likely to ask, "What did I do to cause this? What could I have done differently to avoid my cancer?" The answers to these questions remain largely unknown. In some instances, we know that having a mother or sister who developed breast cancer at a young age puts a woman at an elevated risk for also developing breast cancer at an early age. In this case, breast cancer is not only genetic, but there is also a hereditary component to the disease. For breast cancer, the best we can say at this time is this: If you are at elevated risk for breast cancer, talk to your doctor about setting up a screening program with routine examinations.

Fig. 3. The chemicals in cigarette smoke cause mutations in key genes. In the top portion of the figure is the DNA molecule. DNA is composed of four bases represented by A, C, G, and T. In this figure, A's are color coded by white, C's by green, G's by red, and T's by blue. DNA is read by the cell and used as a recipe to produce protein shown by the blue cubes. When someone smokes, mutations can occur in the DNA molecule and some of the bases change. In this example, a G is mutated to a T. This causes the protein in the lower panel to be made incorrectly, and such a defective protein may not perform its intended job properly.


[/indent][/indent]
julierene is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:43 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright HER2 Support Group 2007 - 2021
free webpage hit counter