Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Biotechs lag in social media use
MHT's Jackie Noblett: Maine becoming a hub for pet-oriented biotechs
MHT talks with Tanja Dominko, WPI researcher and CellThera president
A team including researchers from Harvard University say they have identified a gene that may explain the development of lung cancer in some patients who have never smoked.
The discovery follows a five-center collaborative study that scanned the genomes of thousands of “never smokers” diagnosed with lung cancer as well as healthy never smokers. It took researchers 12 years to identify and enroll these study participants.
The research was co-led by scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Minnesota, Harvard University, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The researchers found that about 30 percent of patients who never smoked and who developed lung cancer had the same uncommon variation to a gene that is thought to suppress tumors. The variation diminishes the expression of the gene and, therefore, its tumor-suppressing power, researchers believe.
The team says it is the first gene that has ever been associated with lung cancer in people who have never smoked. It is hoped that the discovery could someday lead to treatments in this lung cancer population.
A never smoker is defined as a person who has smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime, and that describes 15 percent of men and 53 percent of women who develop lung cancer — accounting for 25 percent of all lung cancers worldwide, according to researchers.
The prestigious journal Lancet Oncology published the research in its online version on Monday.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
