Microsatellite instability pathway

Lax SF, Kendall B, Tashiro H, et al. The frequency of p53, K-ras mutations, and microsatellite instability differs in uterine endometrioid and serous carcinoma—Evidence of distinct molecular genetic pathways. Cancer. 2000 88 814-824. 

Deficiency in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway defines a variant subset of colorectal cancers (Lynch and Smyrk, 1996 Kinzler and Vogelstein, 1996). Replication errors (RER) are responsible for their main characteristic, the large-scale accumulation of frameshift mutations affecting microsatellite tracts (Lynch and Smyrk, 1996 Kinzler and Vogelstein, 1996), a phenomenon that is often referred to as microsatellite instability. The cancers without MMR deficiency will thereafter be called the common cancers, whereas the cancers with MMR deficiency will be alluded to as variant cancers. The RER phenotype can be acquired early in carcinogenesis, evidence... 

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