Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 2, 2026

Chromosome Preparation From Cultured Cells
Published on: January 28, 2014
Chromosomal mechanisms in the initiation of human familial mixed cancers
1Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Abstract:
A strong case for a genetic diathesis in human cancer can be made through the analysis of familial aggregations of mixed tumor types. This is particularly true for childhood cancers which have a very low incidence when compared to that of adult cancer and for which common environmental factors appear to play little etiological role. Here are described studies designed to apply molecular genetic analysis toward defining the lesions which predispose to human cancer. We found that the clinically associated tumors retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma share a pathogenetic mechanism entailing aberrant chromosomal segregation events during mitosis which lead to tumor cells homozygous for recessive mutant alleles at the RB1 locus on human chromosome 13 band q14. These results suggest that a rational explanation for the sequential occurrence in these children of two different tumor types is the initial inheritance of a predisposing recessive mutation with broad but specific tissue activity.
Related Concept Videos
Inheritance of Chromatin Structures
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell
Cancer Prevention
Some...
Crossing Over
Cancers Originate from Somatic Mutations in a Single Cell

