Candidate Cancer Meiosis Genes - Literature review Example

Some X-chromosome and non-X-chromosome CTAs expressed in normal cells apart from testis and in cancerous cells Literature Review 1. Introduction Carcinogenesis is a complex and multistage process. Cancer is difficult to treat and it is important to detect it early so that therapeutic and surgical strategies can be developed to treat cancer. However, it often happens that by the time the symptoms of cancer are detected in a person, the disease is already at a late stage and it becomes difficult to treat the person at that time.

Also, the cancers do not only vary between tissue types but also between patients. Moreover, the cells in a tumor are a complex and diverse mix of cells that have different characteristics. Hence, identifying, detecting and treating cancer becomes difficult because of the heterogeneous nature of the disease and its symptoms. At this juncture what is needed is that such a technology should be developed through which cancer cells can be easily detected or demarked with markers that are specific to cancer cells.

This will help filter cancerous from noncancerous cells because of which it will become easier to detect cancer from a heterogeneous mix of cells. At the moment, high-quality biomarkers or molecular targets that are specific to cancer cells are lacking. The search for such molecules is thus under high significance in the scientific community. A few molecules or antigenic biomarkers have already been identified. One such group of antigens that are gene-encoded are cancer testis antigens (CTAs).

CTAs under normal circumstances are present in the testes only because their genes are expressed in the testes. These genes are not expressed elsewhere. Research has shown that some of these genes that are only expressed in the testes are also expressed in other somatic cells when they become cancerous tumor cells. The cells in the testes often escape the cells of immune system, because of which they are protected from antibodies that are directed towards cancer-testis antigens. Because of this reason, it is a good option to use immunological therapies for diagnosing CTAs in cancerous somatic cells as the same antigens in the normal cells of the testes will remain unaffected.

Therefore, it can be said that CTAs are good targets for both diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, and also immunological-based therapies like adoptive therapeutics. The number of CTA genes that can be used for diagnosis is less because many of these genes are also expressed in a few normal somatic cells. Some candidate CTA genes are generally turned on during the meiotic programme. These are called meiCT or CM genes. As the present research is based on these genes, this literature review will focus on these genes which are CM genes.

In the review, the first discussion is on cancer. It is an introduction to cancer, describing the causes and stages of cancer and then moving on to hallmarks of cancer.