Chapter 11: Microsatellite and chromosomal instability in sporadic and familial colorectal cancers

This chapter provides an example of how the theory developed in Chapters 9, 10 can be used to study various phenomena associated with carcinogenesis. It is also one of a number of chapters which investigates the relationship between carcinogenesis and genetic instability. Here, we will examine the most basic scenario: the generation of the first malignant cell. Does the presence of genetic instability result in a faster generation of the first malignant cell? We present a simple example of how stochastic models developed for two-hit processes can be applied to biological reality…