Genetic Polymorphism And Cancer Susceptibility

This book discusses the role of genetic polymorphism in susceptibility to cancers. The book explores the understanding of differences between the genetic polymorphisms and mutations.It reviews the mechanisms underlying the effect of polymorphism in genes encoding proteins that play an essential role in metabolism, signal transduction, cell cycle, and DNA repair mechanisms. Further, it investigates various techniques that are used for analyzing the genetic polymorphisms. The book contains many chapters which summarize the importance of genetic information obtained from polymorphism-based pharmaco-genetic tests to predict better drug response and life-threatening adverse reactions to chemotherapeutic agents, help in understanding of the impact of SNPs on gene function, and gives overview of the different SNP databases for examination. This book, therefore, serves as an essential guidebook for independent researchers as well as institutions working in this specialised field.

Genetic Polymorphisms and Susceptibity to Disease provides a reference for established researchers in genetic research. The book provides a broad but thorough overview of how allelic gene differences influence disease susceptibility in the human population, and will be a useful reference to researchers across a range of disciplines, for example, on

Genetic polymorphisms are important determinants of phenotypic variations and may modulate the risk to or even cause various diseases including genetic disorders and multifactorial diseases. Genetic polymorphisms also serve as important genetic, population and evolutionary markers that allow the study of genetic and evolutionary aspects of individuals, populations and organisms and aid in tracing the evolutionary and parental lineages. Genetic polymorphisms in low penetrance genes are responsible for the alterations in the gene expression of critical signal transduction proteins and metabolic enzymes. Some of these polymorphisms are linked to increased susceptibility to various diseases especially cancers, cardiovascular diseases, immune disorders, neurological pathologies. This book collates the reviews on the roles played by polymorphisms in critical metabolic, signal transduction, cell cycle or DNA repair genes either directly or indirectly in the disease mechanisms. The focus is on various techniques for identifying the various Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). Polymorphism studies document the affect SNPs, and their expressions have upon the functionality of the enzymes, proteins. Key Features Describes the genetic polymorphism and its various types Discusses the role of genetic polymorphisms in modulating the risk of various human diseases Explores various molecular techniques used for detecting GPs Characterizes the role of SNPs in modulating the susceptibility of human diseases Provides a genetic basis for individual variations in response to therapeutics

The objective of this Genetic Polymorphisms book is to rehighlight and provide few updates on the role of genetic polymorphisms in medicine and agriculture, which void emerging opinion on "full death" of genetic polymorphisms as useful genetic markers. Chapters presented here demonstrate the future benefit of SNPs in many genetic studies as well as prognosis disease and diagnosis.

This volume contains the main proceedings of the fourth international conference on "Cancer Prevention 2006," which was held during February 16–18, 2006, in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Written by international experts in the field, the book comprises a comprehensive update on the most recent developments in the upsurging fields of molecular biology and cancer genetics and their interactions with clinical epidemiology and cancer prevention at various levels.

The study of interactions between genes and environmental exposures ha s expanded considerably in recent years. Highly penetrant genes that a re involved in familial cancer have been identified, but are likely to account for a relatively small proportion of total cancers. Other pre disposing genes have low penetrance, resulting in a moderate increase in the risk of specific cancers, but are widespread in the general pop ulation. This is the case for so-called metabolic polymorphisms. Scien tific interest in metabolic polymorphisms is based on the possibility of identifying subgroups of the population which are at elevated risk of developing environmentally-induced cancer. However, such studies ra ise a series of problems that are methodological - related to the stud y design and analysis - and ethical - related to the practical use tha t can be made of genetic information. This volume deals thoroughly wit h such problems.

Despite recent progress in many areas of treatment and control, cancer remains a frightening threat to everyone. While scientists have known for decades that the majority of human cancers are caused by environmental agents such as radiation and the chemicals in cigarette smoke, not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer. Furthermore, many people who assiduously avoid all possible risk from smoking, diet, and pollution still succumb to some form of cancer later in life. Does this mean that there is an element of blind chance in the underlying mechanisms of human carcinogenesis? To what extent do genetic influences play a role in determining the cancer risk of individuals? A number of `cancer families', in which several closely related individuals have suffered from various specific forms of cancer, have been studied by genetic epidemiologists. However, for the majority of cancer cases, little or no discernible genetic influence or family history is found. Recent research has discovered that for many of these `sporadic' (non-familial) cancer cases, defects or aberrations in certain metabolic genes not previously associated with genetic cancer risk may contribute to either causing the disease or at least increasing the chances of developing cancer. It is therefore possible that much of what has previously passed for `bad luck' may turn out to be a new type of `bad genes'. Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer explains that this new idea of `bad genes' may contain an unexpected positive side. The carcinogenic effects of these metabolic genes, unlike those of the oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes that are responsible for the inherited cancer syndromes, can potentially be overcome or nullified. Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer will provide a valuable reference for health professionals, researchers, clinicians and biomedical scientists who are interested in the current thinking in this critically important area of cancer management.

This book provides a glimpse into the dynamic process of genetic polymorphism by presenting studies carried out on different kinds of organisms at the DNA level or gene expression level. Chapters address such topics as genetic polymorphism in animals, gametocyte biomarkers, thrombotic disorders, prostate cancer, and more.