Molecular biology of malignant degeneration of astrocytoma

Cancer has been proposed to develop by a process of stepwise accumulation of growth-advantageous genetic alterations which result in the evolution of clones which are outgrowths of such rare cells [1]. This model has recently been extensively tested in human gliomas, the most common primary tumor of the adult central nervous system. Temporal disease progression involves an interplay between growth-suppressing and growth-promoting genes. Specifically for gliomas, genetic studies have indicated loss of germline heterozygosity for chromosome 17p; mutation of the p53 gene; overexpression of the platelet-derived growth factor-alpha receptor; allelic losses of chromosomes 22q, 13q, and 19q; deletion of the interferon-alpha and beta and CDKN2 loci on chromosome 9p; amplification and rearrangement of the epidermal growth factor receptor gene, and monosomy of chromosome 10. The following discussion details these genetic alterations and their consequences for the biology of glioma progression with the ultimate aim of providing new avenues for clinical intervention.