Numerous cancer types are known to have an influence on human
chromosomes, deleting certain portions in order to be able to
infect the body. Now, researchers have shown that some of these
deleted sections contain clusters of tumor-suppressing genes.
Experts say that this has been suspected for quite some time,
but that evidence to prove that this was indeed the case has
been lacking. The new investigation looked at a copy-number
alteration (CNA), a deletion that occurs on the short arm of
chromosome 8 (8p). The study was carried out on mouse models of
human liver cancer. Researchers found that this specific CNA
affected a series of genes that work together to counteract
tumors as soon as they start evolving.