Discoveries
Technology helps find possible sites of lung cancer genes
Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, and colleagues are examining lung cancer cells.
In two recent high-tech studies, Dana-Farber scientists have zoomed in on the chromosomes of lung cancer cells to identify more than 100 sections where cancer-related genes may lurk. The studies, conducted by separate teams of investigators, provide researchers around the world with fresh clues about the location of genes potentially involved in lung cancer—and a range of possible targets for future therapies. Their work comes at a time of increased focus on the genetic underpinnings of lung cancer, the number one cause of cancer deaths in the United States.
Using different types of "microarray" technology, which probes thousands of sections of genes or chromosomes at a time, the Dana-Farber teams looked for chromosome regions in lung cancer cells where genes were either missing or copied many times over, mistakes that are often associated with cancer. A group led by Giovanni Tonon, MD, PhD, and Kwok-Kin Wong, MD, PhD, found 93 regions where gene deletions or overcopying had occurred in non-small cell lung cancer cells (which account for about 75 percent of all lung cancers). A group led by Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, found several additional copy-number alterations in lung cancer cells.
"It has been clear for some time that lung cancer cells often contain duplicated or deleted regions, suggesting that genes in those regions are linked to cancer," Tonon says. "These new studies will help narrow the search."
