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Article: Oncogenes
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- Genetics
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Oncogenes
An oncogene is a gene that causes cancer. Oncogenes arise from normal cellular genes, often ones that help regulate cell division.
Early Oncogene Research
The first clues that cancer has a genetic basis came from several independent observations. In 1914 the German cell biologist Theodor Boveri viewed cancer cells through a microscope and noted that they often carried abnormal chromosomes. However, recognition that a specific chromosomal abnormality was routinely associated with a particular type of cancer did not come until 1973, when Janet Rowley showed that chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells carried a chromosomal translocation in which the ends of chromosomes nine and ...