1981年度 韓國動物學會 秋季學術大會 特別講演 要旨: Resistance to Carcinogens at Early Developmental Stages and the Latent Period of Induced Neoplasms

Carcinogenesis is extremely complex. Therefore, it is paradoxical but nonetheless important in cancer research if, in an animal whose parental strains are normally sensitive to cancer induction, we could find mutant strains which are resistant to various carcinogens as a result of mutations in one or two genes. No such mutants have been reported so far as I am aware but we do know that at early stages in their development, fish, mice, and humans are highly resistant to cancer induction by chemicals and radiation. I will give a brief overview of the stage-dependent resistance of fish, mice and humans to cancer induction and discuss the stem-cell mutation theory to explain the cancer-resistant stages. Finally, the latent period of induced neoplasms will be discussed in relation to the stem-cell mutation theory.