title: Molecular biology of proto-oncogenes in genitourinary cancers.
abstract: The application of molecular biology to oncology has allowed the recognition of altered genes in cancer cells. The DNA sequences most commonly altered belong to the family of proto-oncogenes, which are homologous to the cancer-causing genes of RNA tumor viruses. In the normal cell, proto-oncogenes apparently have important functions in regulation of growth and differentiation. When altered by mutation, deletion, translocation or amplification in cancer cells, proto-oncogenes may disrupt fundamental cellular processes. Such aberrant functioning by abnormal proto-oncogenes may play crucial and even causative roles in cancer development. Altered proto-oncogenes have been identified in cancers of the human urogenital tract. Studies on the expression of proto-oncogenes in genitourinary cells will increase understanding of basic biological properties of these cells, and may yield information relevant to staging, diagnosis, risk factors, and markers of pathologic classification.
mesh_terms: D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D005784:Gene Amplification; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes; D014178:Translocation, Genetic; D014565:Urogenital Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure