title: Genetic and environmental factors in hereditary predisposition to tumors: a conceptual overview.
abstract: Cancer is a heritable disorder of somatic cells. Carcinogenesis at the cellular level is like an opened Japanese fan, because initiated cells grow in several directions and tumors suggest the edge of the fan by having many gene abnormalities. We discuss here the primal force and gene networks (federal headship) in renal carcinogenesis. The Eker (Tsc2 mutant) rat model of hereditary renal carcinoma (RC) is an example of a Mendelian dominantly inherited predisposition to a specific cancer in an experimental animal. Recently, we discovered a new hereditary renal carcinoma in the rat in Japan, and the rat was named the "Nihon" rat. We suggest that its predisposing (Bhd) gene is a novel renal tumor suppressor gene. We present these unique models as part of the study of problems in carcinogenesis; e.g., multistep carcinogenesis, cancer prevention and the development of the therapeutic treatments that can be translated to human patients, as well as how environmental factors interact with cancer susceptibility gene(s).
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan. ohino@med.juntendo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Okio
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hino
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004777:Environment; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D012307:Risk Factors; D000077005:Tuberous Sclerosis Complex 2 Protein; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C000624653:TSC2 protein, human; C000624655:Tsc2 protein, rat; D000077005:Tuberous Sclerosis Complex 2 Protein; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins