al 1997 khaliq et al 2000 some of these intronic alterations lead to alternately spliced forms of p53 but in other cases the mechanism by which the intronic sequences are associated with the cancer predisposition are yet unknown verselis et al 2000 avigad et al 1997 khaliq et al 2000 the results described herein indicate that the single nucleotide insertion that is associated with cancer development in domestic short hair cats is also present in cancer cases amongst cats of the siamese and its derivative breeds the combination of the genetic predisposition and the founder effect in the domestic cat population has likely resulted in the marked rise in the incidence of sarcomas following enactment of laws mandating vaccinations in various states hendrick and goldschmidt 1991 vella et al 1999 vinogradov 1997 klein et al 1988 analyses on 115 other cancers in the domestic cat including various carcinomas adenomas lymphomas sarcomas mast cell tumors leukemias myelomas and melanomas representing tumors of various organs including breast skin muscle nerve bone thyroid glands also indicated the presence of a genetic predisposition comparison of the presence of susceptibility markers in cases as compared to controls also indicated that the associations were highly significant for each cancer type p values lt 0 05 review of the medical history for the control cats described in example 1 revealed a clinical history of urinary system disorders in some individuals blood samples from six cats with a history of urinary system disorder case and 19 control cats no history of urinary disorder were collected pcr amplification of feline p53 and sequence analysis of amplicons was conducted as described in example 1 as with.