[Genetic and environmental factors in colorectal cancer. Mutations in the familial adenomatous polyposis gene].

The incidence of colon cancer has increased during the last 30 years in Norway and is now the second most common newly diagnosed type of cancer in women and the third in men. Familial adenomatous polyposis, hereditary colorectal cancer, is caused primarily by inactivation of the tumour suppressor gene adenomatous polyposis coli (APC). The protein coded for by this gene has a possible role in cell-cell signalling or adhesion by binding to catenins which bind to the cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin, or in anchoring the cytoskeleton. Both germ-line and somatic APC gene mutations result in a truncated protein, due to introduction of a stop codon. The positions of the germ-line mutations seem to correlate with the seriousness of polyposis. The food mutagen PhIP causes specific mutations in the Apc gene in rats, and is a possible environmental mutagen also in humans. The Min mouse with mutated Apc-gene is a good model for studies of both induction and prevention of inherited and sporadic intestinal cancer.