[The polyposis project]

A research project initiated in 1978 comprised establishment of a national polyposis registry, a genetic linkage study using classical and DNA markers, an in vitro study of fibroblasts for transformation parameters and chromosome instability, and a comparative study of DNA-RFLPs in cancer and constitutional tissue. The linkage study (to be reported elsewhere) confirmed the recently reported close linkage between the polyposis gene locus APC and D5S71. No in vitro test for the presence of the APC gene has been confirmed or revealed, but we detected increased chromosomal instability on a statistical basis and also recorded abnormal DNA-repair. As per 1. January 1988 the prevalence of adenomatosis of colon and rectum in Norway was 1/43,500. Among patients born in the period 1931-1950 the incidence at birth of developing the disease is 1/20,000 and the mutation rate is 1/72,000 per gamete per generation. In Norway new mutants in healthy families will comprise 1/3-1/2 of all new cases in the coming two decades, or one of 36,000 births.