Role in Cancer
One of the most frequent genetic abnormalities that occur in advanced colorectal cancer is loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of DCC in region 18q21.
DCC in a receptor for netrin-1 and is currently believed by some to be a conditional tumour suppressor gene, meaning that it normally prevents cell growth when in the absence of netrin-1. DCC elimination is not believed to be a key genetic change in tumour formation, but one of many alterations that can promote existing tumour growth. DCC's possible role in migration of cancerous cells is in the process of being characterized.
While recent results make it fairly likely that DCC is involved in the biology of several cancers, the extent of its involvement and the details of how it works are still being studied.
Read more about this topic: Deleted In Colorectal Cancer
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