Question ID: WS-58
Submitted by: Charles Rabkin
February 11, 2011
Question: What is the prevalence of transformed clones in people without clinical evidence of cancer and what distinguishes such clones from overt malignancies? Background: Pre-malignant changes and microscopic cancers are detectable in many tissues. Examples include circulating lymphocytes with cancer-associated translocations, clonal mutations in dysplastic mucosa of various organs, and undiagnosed prostate and other cancers that are frequent with advanced age. The relationships of these conditions to cancers that cause morbidity and mortality are currently unclear. Feasibility: Advances in understanding the molecular changes in cancer and high throughput technologies for their detection could be profitably applied in cohort studies of cancer etiology to define natural history, risk factors, and prognosis. Implications of success: Molecular or epidemiologic features that pre-sage invasive cancer could be targeted for prevention or early treatment, while benign changes would not require potentially harmful intervention.
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