Chapter 23, Problem 7
As a genetic counselor, you are asked to assess the risk for a couple with a family history of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) who are thinking about having children. Neither the husband nor the wife has colorectal cancer, but the husband has a sister with FAP. What is the probability that this couple will have a child with FAP? Are there any tests that you could recommend to help in this assessment?
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List the functions of kinases and cyclins, and describe how they interact to cause cells to move through the cell cycle.
How can mutations in non-coding segments of DNA contribute to the development of cancers?
What is the difference between saying that cancer is inherited and saying that the predisposition to cancer is inherited?
What is apoptosis, and under what circumstances do cells undergo this process?
Define tumor-suppressor genes. Why is a mutated single copy of a tumor-suppressor gene expected to behave as a recessive gene?
Describe the steps by which the TP53 gene responds to DNA damage and/or cellular stress to promote cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. Given that TP53 is a recessive gene and is not located on the X chromosome, why would people who inherit just one mutant copy of a recessive tumor-suppressor gene be at higher risk of developing cancer than those without the recessive gene?