National Cancer Institute National Cancer Institute
U.S. National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute
NCI Home Cancer Topics Clinical Trials Cancer Statistics Research & Funding News About NCI

Understanding Cancer Series: Cancer Genomics
< Back to Main
In English En español
    Posted: 01/28/2005    Reviewed: 09/01/2006
Page Options
Print This Page  Print This Page
Print This Document  Print This Document
View Entire Document  View Entire Document
E-Mail This Document  E-Mail This Document
PDF Version  View/Print PDF
PowerPoint Version  View/Print PowerPoint
Quick Links
Director's Corner

Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI Drug Dictionary

Funding Opportunities

NCI Publications

Advisory Boards and Groups

Science Serving People

Español
NCI Highlights
The Cancer Genome Atlas Reports Brain Tumors Study

New Study of Targeted Therapies for Breast Cancer

The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research FY 2009

Cancer Trends Progress Report: 2007 Update

Past Highlights
You CAN Quit Smoking Now!
Slide 11 : Tumors Are Clonal previousnext

Each cell, when it divides, generates two identical new ones. So, when a cell acquires a mutation, it passes that mutation on to its progeny during cell growth and division. Because cells with cancer-linked mutations tend to proliferate more than normal cells, cellular candidates for additional mutations grow in number. Mutations continue to accumulate and are copied to descendant cells. If one cell finally acquires enough mutations to become cancerous, subsequent cancer cells will be derived from that one single transformed cell. So all tumors are clonal, which means that they originate from a single parent cell, whether that first mutant cell was of germline or somatic origin.

Tumors Are Clonal

< Previous  |  Index  |  Next Slide >


A Service of the National Cancer Institute
Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health USA.gov