TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR GENES IN UROLOGIC TUMORS

During the last decade remarkable progress has been made in our unders tanding of the malignant phenotype. There is evidence that a series of genetic changes are involved in the conversion of a normal cell to a malignant one. These changes have been directly identified with mutati ons in various genes usually involved in cell growth and proliferation . Two main classes of genes have been characterized: oncogenes, which promote growth and tumor suppressor genes, which restrain growth. Whil e oncogenes have been studied in relative detail, little is known abou t tumor suppressor genes. However recent studies revealed that loss of tumor suppressor genes are a common mechanism for the progression of cancer and are of prognostic value. In this review we focus on the rol e of these tumor suppressor genes in urologic tumors in experimental a s well as clinical studies.