title: Diversity counts. Visualizing pretumor progression in the gastrointestinal tract.
abstract: Tumor progression is critically dependent on the selection of genetic alterations. This clonal evolution can be traced to the stage preceding visible tumor formation called pretumor progression, in which genetic change occurs without visible change. Recently, the identification of intestinal stem cell markers in animal models has made visualization of stem cells possible in vivo. Translating this work to the clinical setting by visualizing stem cells in patient material may allow us to understand differences in patients' vulnerability to cancer development and target preventive measures to high-risk groups. In this review article, we examine some of the analytic methods currently used in research settings tracing stem cell dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langeveld
authors.forename: Marnix
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Lodewijk
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brosens
authors.forename: Folkert
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morsink
authors.forename: G Johan
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Offerhaus
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: de Leng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D018450:Disease Progression; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers