CHAPTER 13 - Cancer and regulation of gene expression

Abstract

Cancer genetics was traditionally understood in the light of the ideology that genetic lesions in oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes are solely implicated in the causation of cancer. Research over the years has clarified that metastasis of tumor needs cancer cells to acquire all the hallmark features. These hallmark features are acquired by hits in cell metabolism after tumorigenesis. Most of these secondary hits are generated by hijacking the processes of RNA and protein synthesis. So, an understanding of gene regulation at transcriptional and translational levels is crucial to elaborate dysregulated networks leading to cancer.