caretaker gene

Changes in the genome that allow uncontrolled cell proliferation or cell immortality are responsible for cancer. It is believed that the major changes in the genome that lead to cancer arise from mutations in tumor suppressor genes. In 1997, Kinzler and Bert Vogelstein grouped these cancer susceptibility genes into two classes: "caretakers" and "gatekeepers". In 2004, a third classification of tumor suppressor genes was proposed by Franziska Michor, Yoh Iwasa, and Martin Nowak; "landscaper" genes.