LungBlog

A multi-institution team, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today reported results of the largest effort to date to chart the genetic changes involved in the most common form of lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma. The findings should help pave the way for more individualized approaches for detecting and treating the nation’s leading cause of cancer deaths.

A study by the National Institutes of Health shows 26 genes are changed in the most common form of lung cancer.

The study immediately raised treatment hopes, but genetics-based cures can be a double-edged sword.

Imagine cancer, 2040. A 45-year-old woman who has never smoked develops lung cancer, which today kills more people than any other kind. (By then, of course, cigarettes will have gone the way of the buggy whip, and lung cancer rates will be cut in half.) She undergoes outpatient surgery, and her doctors quickly scrutinize the tumor’s genes and feed the data, along with other information from her electronic medical record, into a desktop computer that crunches out a treatment plan all but certain to work. At subsequent checkups, her blood is tested for the earliest hint of a tumor recurrence—though were such news to come, it would bring no doom and gloom. Her doctor would simply analyze a few of the cells that even the tiniest tumors shed and prescribe a suitable next round of therapy. Throughout, her busy life is barely interrupted, and her hair stays wonderfully intact.

Patients operated on by surgeons who do not routinely remove cancer from the lungs may be at a higher risk for complications, according to a study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.”Our study found that hospitals that do higher volumes of these types of surgeries have correspondingly lower mortality rates than those who do fewer of the procedures,” said Andrew Shaw, M.D., an anesthesiologist at Duke and lead investigator on the study.

“This has important implications for both patients and doctors: patients should choose a center that does these procedures often, and doctors who are only doing a few of these a year should consider either growing their practices, or focusing their attention on other, less complex, types of surgery.”

The findings of a multi-institution team of researchers give key insight into genetic changes that take place in the most common form of lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma.Members of the Tumor Sequencing Project (TSP) consortium have successfully identified 26 genes that are frequently mutated in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. These findings more than double the number of genes previously known to be associated with the deadly disease. Beyond identification, the TSP team also detailed key pathways involved in the disease and found patterns of mutation common among different subgroups of lung cancer patients.

The hoary metaphor of the war on cancer, as overused as it may be, is as evocative as ever to describe our efforts to beat the disease that will claim nearly 566,000 American lives this year alone. So let’s fall back on martial imagery to describe our current position: We now know the enemy far better than ever before. And that promises much more precise targets.

America has grown complacent in its war on cancer, so it must redouble its efforts to defeat this often-deadly disease. And the leadership for this campaign must come directly from the White House.That’s the assessment of a report, Maximizing Our Nation’s Investment in Cancer, released Thursday by the President’s Cancer Panel, which calls for a three-pronged approach to defeat this “bioterrorist within.”

Naming Cancer the ‘Bioterrorist Within,’ Panel Stresses the Urgent Need to Make Cancer a National Priority

The findings, published in the journal Nature, double the number of genes already linked with lung adenocarcinoma.

 huge study funded by the National Institutes of Health triples the number of genes linked to lung cancer and points toward new treatments.The study analyzed DNA sequences from 623 genes in tumor samples from 188 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer.