“…Based on the observations of melanoma suppression by a particular chromosome, we proposed the appearance of human melanoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms' tumor, phaeochmmocytoma, and tumors of breast, ovaries, stomach, and colon many years ago as loss or impairment of tumor genespecific regulatory genes . Today, the formal similarity of the phenomenon of suppression or permission of tumorigenicity by a particular chromosome observable in the animals themselves, to that observable in human cell lines, e.g., chromosome 6 in melanoma, chromosome 11 in cervical carcinoma, W i l m s ' tumor, and fibrosarcoma, chromosome 17 in neuroblastoma and breast carcinoma, chromosome 18 and 5 in colorectal cancer (Stanbridge, 1976(Stanbridge, , 1989(Stanbridge, , 1990Klinger, 1982;Klinger and Kaelbling, 1986;Huff et al, 1988;Cropp et al, 1990;Dracopoli et al, 1985;Kugoh et al, 1990;Fearon et al, 1990;'hnaka et al, 1991;Weissmann et al, 1987; see reviews in Bock and Marsh, 1989), is self-evident and reveals formally a problem of gneral cancerology. Moreover, allele losses have recently been defined in human tumors by DNA studies of the site of the loss (Stanbridge, 1989; Ponder, Large interactive technical as well as living systems or parts of them, inherently evolve toward a critical state in which an obviously minor event, like incidental loss of a controlling element, can lead to a breakdown.…”