Theoretical investigations on oncogene activation by chemicals and antioncogene inactivation by radiation.

To activate the cancerous genetic information in the cell one has either to activate oncogenes or to inactivate antioncogenes (cancerous growth suppressing genes). These processes usually happen in the cell with the aid of external factors, especially chemical carcinogens' and radiations. It was shown with the aid of simple statistical considerations that both oncogene activation by chemical carcinogens and the double strand breakings due to ionizing radiations leading to antioncogene inactivation most probably are caused not only by local effects. Different mechanisms (like the change of the tertiary structure, the change of the dispersion and polarization forces between DNA and proteins due to charge transfer and different solution mechanisms) were investigated to prove the role of long-range effects of carcinogens in initiating the malignant transformation of an eucaryotic cell.