Mutational analysis of genes p14ARF, p15INK4b, p16INK4a, and PTEN in human nervous system tumors

The cancer is one of the most common and severe problems in clinical medicine, and nervous system tumors represent about 2% of the types of cancer. The central role of the nervous system in the maintenance of vital activities and the functional consequences of the loss of neurons can explain how severe brain cancers are. The cell cycle is a highly com- plex process, with a wide number of regulatory proteins involved, and such proteins can suffer alterations that transform normal cells into malignant ones. The INK4 family members (CDK inhibitors) are the cell cycle regu- lators that block the progression of the cycle through the R point, causing an arrest in G1 stage. The p14ARF (alternative reading frame) gene is a tu- mor suppressor that inhibits p53 degradation during the progression of the cell cycle. The PTEN gene is related to the induction of growth suppression through cell cycle arrest, to apoptosis and to the inhibition of cell adhesion and migration. The purpose of the present study was to assess the muta- tional state of the genes p14ARF, p15INK4b, p16INK4a, and PTEN in 64 human nervous system tumor samples. Homozygous deletions were found