Developmental tumours

Recent advances in the genetics and cell biology of developmental tumours have lead to new insights into the causes of neoplasia and the tumour cell phenotype. While much investigation has centered around the mechanism whereby tumour cells are able to proliferate, and the relation of these mechanisms to normal cellular growth and differentiation during development, the molecular characterization of genes associated with chromosome lesions predisposing to tumours has shed light on a new class of tumour suppressing gene, whose continued expression is selected against during tumour formation. This review concentrates on two systems in which these phenomena are currently being addressed, teratocarcinoma and Wilms' tumour, embryonal nephroblastoma.