A general overview of the process of carcinogenesis.
A general synthetic overview of the process of carcinogenesis is presented. The following points are discussed: the uniqueness of tumor disease with respect to other pathologies; tumors viewed as a pathology of the transduction system of signals that regulate the communal life of the cells of multicell organisms; the tumor as a genetic disease of somatic cells; carcinogenesis as a multistage event; the fundamental role of physiologic and pathologic rhythms of cell proliferation in the modulation of tumor incidence; mechanisms entailed in the maintenance of genome integrity; mechanisms involved in the protection of genome integrity from exogenous and endogenous causes of degradation of the genetic message.
National Institute for Cancer Research, Genoa, Italy.
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D004260:DNA Repair; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015398:Signal Transduction