Pharma

Biography

Dr Leon P. Bignold is a Histopathologist interested in genomic mechanisms of the histopathology and related features of tumors. He has published 18 papers, edited one volume (Cancer: Cell Structures, Carcinogens and Genomic Instability, Birkhäuser, 2006) and written two books (“David Paul Hansemann: Contributions to Oncology”, Birkhäuser, 2008; “Principles of Tumors: a Translational Approach to Foundations”, Elsevier 2015) in this area.

Abstract

Tumours exhibit complex combinations of traits, in association with mutations in the genomes of their lineage-committed “parent” cells. Large numbers of mutations occur in tumours, but the precise ‘driver’ mutations for each tumour type remain unclear (1). Some genome studies have documented some tumour-type specific patterns of mutation in protein-coding genes (2). However, most of these mutations appear to be ‘passenger’ / secondary genomic events. For tumour molecular pathology, almost all genomic studies have been of protein-coding genes affecting growth, either via cell signalling pathways or proliferation induction (3, 4). Genes, and mutations in them, for other traits in tumours have been relatively neglected.

In recent years, many regulatory non-coding (RNA) genes in various classes have been described (5). Studies of the effects of their mutations are in progress.

The paper reviews data in the UCSC Genome Browser (6) concerning non-coding genes in or near histopathologically-significant and hereditarily-predisposing tumour genes (7).  The potential effects of the type of mutation affecting these genes are discussed.