New Molecular Switch Is The Key That Unlocks ...( l “these switches and regulators&...)

“Any cellular manipulation of its DNA is an inherently risky process since loss or alterations can result in mutations or cell death,” Dr. Fishel says. “To accurately perform such processes, it is likely that the cell assembles all of the necessary components. Then a switch initiates the actual event. What we’ve found is one of those switches, and that’s the novelty". According to Fishel, this is the first identification of such a switch in DNA metabolism.

“This a real basic science finding, and it will change the way we think about DNA metabolic events,” he contends. “It has profound implications regarding other DNA processes. From a cancer standpoint, there is clear genomic instability in most tumors,” he says. “Yet we don’t find mutations in the mismatch repair genes in all of these cancers.” Fishel believes that similar regulatory switches may be involved in these other cancers. "Now that we understand one of these switches, we can look for similar switches in other cellular DNA processes and their role in the development of cancer".

According to the American Cancer Society, colon and rectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the nation, with some 200,000 new cases diagnosed annually.

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Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@mail.tju.edu
215-955-6300
Thomas Jefferson University
26-Dec-1997