DOMINANT ONCOGENES, TUMOR SUPPRESSORS, AND RADIOSENSITIVITY

A variety of conflicting results appeared in the literature concerning the effect of dominant oncogenes on the sensitivity to irradiation an d to anticancer agents in a number of cell lines of human and animal o rigin. In this report we provide evidence supporting the hypothesis th at the tumor suppressor gene p53 and the apoptosis suppressor gene bcl 2 modulate the effect of dominant oncogenes and that the effect of dom inant oncogenes on resistance or sensitivity is dependent on the balan ce between the expression of p53 and bcl2.