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Volume 346:302-304 January 31, 2002 Number 5 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The holy grail of cancer screening is a sensitive, specific, and noninvasive test for the detection of malignant cells. Cytologic analysis of urine or sputum has not lived up to its early promise because it lacks sensitivity. Far more sensitive is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which replicates minuscule quantities of DNA to generate amounts that allow exact identification of tumor-specific mutations. Its success in detecting such mutations in exfoliated cells in the urine, sputum, pancreatic juice, and stools has been mixed, however, and the utility of the method in screening for cancer-specific mutations remains unproved.

Two genes, K-ras . . . [Full Text of this Article]

The APC Gene

The Protein-Truncation Test

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