
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991                   TAG: 9102270355
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: New York Times News Service
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CANCER LINKED TO DEFECTIVE GENES

Scientists may have figured out how defective genes cause cancer, which could provide clues to why some cancers run in families.

By studying how the virus that causes the disease herpes commandeers the cell's genetic machinery, scientists in the United Kingdom determined how some genes guard against cancer.

When the protective genes, called tumor suppressor genes, become defective, cancer may develop. The study is being published in Thursday's issue of the British journal Nature.

"By knocking out tumor suppressor genes, the cancer cell's brakes don't work," said David Lane, a scientist at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Cells then can multiply out of control, growing into a tumor.

Any gene can become defective due to radiation, chemicals or smoking.

Genes are stretches of a chemical called DNA that determine the traits people inherit from their parents. Genes also govern the behavior of individual cells in the body.

Families with damaged genes can transfer them to their children, passing on the tendency to develop cancer.

Lane said scientists do not completely understand how tumor suppressor genes protect against cancer.

He said the results eventually may lead to a new drug to take over for defective tumor suppressor genes.

by CNB