Question

People who are born with a mutant copy of the p53 gene are at high risk of developing several very different cancers, including leukemia, bone cancer, and breast cancer. How can 1 mutation potentially lead to so many different types of cancer?

Answer 1

1 mutation in P53 gene potentially lead to so many different types of cancer because missense mutation in P53 gene are extremely widespread in human cancers and give rise to mutant P53 proteins that lose tumour suppressive activities, and some of which exert trans- dominant repression over the wild type counterpart. Cancer cells aquire selective advantages by retaining mutant forms of the protein, which radically subvert the nature of the p53 pathway by promoting invasion, metastasis and chemoresistance.

Evidence suggests that mutant P53 proteins can favour cancer cell survival and tumour progression by acting as homeostatic factors which may lead to different types of cancer in the body. These activities of mutant P53 explain cancer cell addiction to particular oncogene.