BACKGROUND Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer HNPCC, Lynch syndrome) is a genetic disease of autosomal dominant inheritance. It is caused by a mutation in one of four genes of the DNA mismatch repair system and confers a markedly increased risk for various types of cancer, particularly of the colon and the endometrium. Its prevalence in the general population is about 1 in 500, and it ca...

The scheme of accumulation of genetic alterations in a long-term case of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) was reconstructed by the retrospective analysis of postoperative tissue materials. This unique case resulted from a primary lesion in MLH1 gene and revealed two genetic pathways of carcinogenesis in tumors separated by lifetime and localization.

A 56-year-old woman with positive genetic testing of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), many familiar history of different neoplasia (Fig. 1), and a personal history of hysterectomy due to an endometrial cancer was referred to our Unit because of anemia with a positive fecal occult blood test. Both, gastroscopy and colonoscopy were performed with the only result of less than 10 ...

To investigate the role of telomerase in the multistep Colorectal carcinogenesis, we examined telomerase activity in 31 adenomatous polyps and 22 paired cancer-normal mucosa specimens from non-hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer patients. Telomerase activity was detected in 18% of normal mucosa, 16% of small «1.0 cm) polyps, 20% of intermediate polyps, 71% of large (>2.0 cm) polyps, and ...