'One-hit' event provides new opportunity for colon cancer prevention, say Fox Chase researchers
Monday, September 15, 2008 - 10:42
in Psychology & Sociology
More than 30 years ago, Alfred Knudson Jr., M.D., Ph.D., revolutionized the field of cancer genetics by showing that a person must lose both their paternal and maternal copies of a particular class of cancer-inhibiting genes, called tumor-suppressor genes, in order to develop cancer. This theory, called the two-hit hypothesis, guided scientists around the globe in their quest for tumor suppressor genes.