TheCDKN2ATumor-Suppressor Locus — A Tale of Two Proteins

In this issue of the Journal, Monzon et al. report the occurrence of germ-line mutations of the CDKN2A gene in patients with multiple primary melanomas.1 CDKN2A, a tumor-suppressor gene, has a central role in regulating cell division.The loss of function of tumor-suppressor genes is a key event in the multistep process that transforms a normal cell into a cancer cell. In normal cells, the proteins that arise from these genes participate in diverse biologic processes. Some proteins, such as the p53 protein, protect the cell from genetic damage, and their loss leads to the characteristic genomic instability and . . .