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Glycobiology and Cancer

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Encyclopedia of Cancer

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Definition

Glycobiology is a discipline of natural sciences covering studies of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of glycans and glycoconjugates and proteins that specifically interact with these. It is involved in almost every aspect of cancer: transformation, progression, metastasis, diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Still, the general awareness of the potential and clinical use of discoveries in glycobiology among oncologists, or in oncology among glycobiologists, is limited.

Characteristics

Glycan Structural Diversity Is Theoretically Immense but Genetically Restricted

The field of glycobiology has evolved from mainly structural characterization of naturally occurring carbohydrates (sugars or glycans) to functional studies of the biology and interaction of such compounds with both endogenous and exogenous proteins, lectins typically equipped with carbohydrate recognizing domains (CRD). The glycans (Fig. 1) may occur as free oligosaccharides but are usually covalently...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Chemistry and Transfusion Medicin, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

    Göran Larson, Ammi Grahn & Jonas Nilsson

Authors
  1. Göran Larson
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  2. Ammi Grahn
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  3. Jonas Nilsson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Göran Larson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Larson, G., Grahn, A., Nilsson, J. (2014). Glycobiology and Cancer. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2444-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2444-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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