Colon cancer genetics / edited by Patrick M. Lynch and Henry T. Lynch.

Date:
[1985]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Colon cancer genetics / edited by Patrick M. Lynch and Henry T. Lynch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/344 page IX
    Preface To the practicing physician as well as to the clinical investigator, there are certain questions about hereditary colonic cancer (HCC) whose answers would aid immeasurably in surveillance/management programs. The answers to these questions would also enable a more clear comprehension of etiology. Among the specific questions to be addressed are the following: What sort of family history is required before one should suspect an HCC syndrome, and how common are such histories? What clinical or laboratory features are common to patients from such families, and how might these be used by clinicians for syndrome recognition? What differences exist between colon cancer-prone families that justify subclassification, and what chnical signifi¬ cance attaches to these differences? What available screening and manage¬ ment protocols are currently recommended? What promise does ongoing research hold for improving recognition and treatment of high-risk patients? These questions are addressed in this book, but considerably more research on each of them is needed. The true frequency of hereditary colorectal cancer in the general population is not known. Based on the few rehable figures that exist, we estimate that a simply inherited predisposition to colon cancer may account for as many as 7 to 10% of all cases of colorectal cancer. Moreover, the hereditary, nonpolyposis, colorectal-cancer syndromes may occur more frequently than the hereditary, familial, polyposis-coli (FPC) varieties. Historically, interest in the heritability of colon cancer was focused primarily on adenomatosis coli. In 1882, Cripps provided the first descrip¬ tion of familial, multiple-adenomatous polyposis coli (FPC); its cancer association was established in 1890 by Handford. More than a quarter of a ix
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3