Do mutator mutations fuel tumorigenesis?

Abstract excerpt

The mutator phenotype hypothesis proposes that the mutation rate of normal cells is insufficient to account for the large number of mutations found in human cancers. Consequently, human tumors exhibit an elevated mutation rate that increases the likelihood of a tumor acquiring advantageous mutations. The hypothesis predicts that tumors are composed of cells harboring hundreds of thousands of mutations, as opposed...

Topics

• Animals
• Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
• Humans
• Mutation
• Neoplasms
• Phenotype