Eighth Annual Pezcoller Symposium: genomic instability and immortality in cancer.

The Eighth Annual Pezcoller Symposium focused on the mecha nism of genetic instability, a characteristic of neoplastic cells that also determines tumor progression. Immortality as a consequence of the lack of susceptibility to mechanisms of maturation, senescence, and/or apoptosis was also discussed because it is another pivotal character istic of the neoplastic cell. Mutational lability, changes in DNA repair capabilities, gene recombination processes, cell cycle check points and apoptosis, the significance of telomerases in cell immortality and senescence, and the clinical relevance and exploitation of the phe nomena considered were topics discussed toward a clarification of mechanisms involved and of the extent to which some of these phenomena are causatively interrelated. The first two sessions were devoted to discussions of possible mechanisms of gene instability. Maurizio Gatti discussed the TAs3 that occur in Drosophila mela