Sunlight and the onset of skin cancer.
The photons of sunlight precipitate a series of genetic events in skin leading to cancer. These events involve somatic mutations as well as inherited alleles. Competition between cell populations ensues, as a single mutated cell expands into a clone. Thus cancer involves both a single-cell problem and a many-cell problem; in skin cancer, sunlight appears to drive both.
Brash
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Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8040, USA. douglas.brash@yale.edu
D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics; D016158:Genes, p53; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D013472:Sunlight / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays / Q000009:adverse effects