On Dec. 2, 1993, Dana-Farber scientists identified the gene that causes an inherited form of colon cancer, which led to diagnostic screening to determine whether people are predisposed to contract the disease.

The identification of the gene which causes hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, an inherited form of colon cancer, enabled doctors to screen patients before any tumor growth in order to determine whether they are predisposed to contract the disease.

More than a million Americans are thought to carry the gene for this type of cancer, which accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all cases of the disease. The findings were published in Cell.