The Role of Chromosomes in Cancer Biology

For many years Professor KOLLER has possessed an international reputation in the fields of cytogenetics and karyology, both in their fundamental aspects and in their relation to the problems of tumour causation, especially to the role of heteromromatin, and few men have made a greater contribution. The role of the mromosome complex in carcinogenesis has exerted a natural fascin­ ation for many decades, but there can be little doubt of the great advances in know­ ledge and understanding whim have accrued of recent years. Although it is probable that the key event in the inception of particular tumours resides in a delicate molec­ ular rearrangement, and is hence undetectable by conventional microscopical methods, nevertheless a large proportion is accompanied by karyotypic variation and relatively gross changes in mromosomal number, order and arrangement, witness tlie discovery of the Philadelphia mromosome and its consequences. Further, any such manges in the mromosomal apparatus must inevitably be attended by profound repercussions in the cytoplasm with all that this must mean in protein synthesis and cellular behaviour.