[ATM and Cancer]

The mutation of AT gene (ATM) leads to the AT disease (ataxia telangiectasis), the cancer incidence of AT patients and its carriers are significantly higher than the normal persons. And they are easy to have lymphoid tumors, including the lymphoma and leukemia et al. These indicate the ATM play a important role in the cancers pathogenesis mechanism. The ATM gene locate in the human chromosome 11q22-23, and the ATM is a kind of nuclear protein, its major functional domain is P13K (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase), locates on the carboxy terminus. ATM protein plays a critical role in the signal transduction of cell cycle checkpoint, the repair of damaged DNA and the apoptosis. The mutation of the ATM gene leads to the functional and structural change of ATM protein in the AT patient, then leads to the abnormality of cell cycle checkpoint and the DNA damage repair, the apoptosis sensitivity increase. So the AT patients and their cells are radiosensitive, the characteristic of AT patient suggests the ATM gene is valuable in the cancer's gene therapy