Double-strand breaks and translocations in cancer

B Elliott1, M Jasin

  • 1Cell Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, NewYork 10021, USA.

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Mutations

Mutations are changes in the sequence of DNA. These changes can occur spontaneously or they can be induced by exposure to environmental factors. Mutations can be characterized in a number of different ways: whether and how they alter the amino acid sequence of the protein, whether they occur over a small or large area of DNA, and whether they occur in somatic cells or germline cells.
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