Skip to main content

Multistep Development

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer
  • 26 Accesses

Definition

Multistep development is the stepwise development of malignant tumors by successive changes in multiple characteristics (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Multistep pathway from normal cell to metastatic colon carcinoma. The rate-limiting step is postulated to be the loss of the APC gene on chromosome 5. Individuals with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) inherit the first mutation (APC gene) and only need to acquire a second mutation. Other individuals need to acquire both mutations in the same cell lineage. Additional genetic damage is accumulated, including loss of genes on 17p, exemplified p53, and 18q, as well as other changes. These can occur in any order and result in progressively abnormal cells, eventually capable of metastasis (Figure provided by Bert Vogelstein)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Beckmann MW et al (1997) Multistep carcinogenesis of breast cancer and tumor heterogeneity. J Mol Med 75:429–439

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bodmer W, Bishop T, Karran P (1994) Genetic steps in colorectal cancer. Nat Genet 6:217–219

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klein G, Klein E (1985) Evolution of tumors and the impact of molecular oncology. Nature 315:190–195

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nowell PC (1976) The clonal evolution of tumor cell populations. Science 194:23–28

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg RA (2007) The biology of cancer. Garland Science/Taylor Francis Group, LLC, New York

    Google Scholar 

See Also

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George Klein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Klein, G. (2015). Multistep Development. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_3904-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_3904-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics