Longkanker bij niet-rokers is anders en aggressiever dan bij (ex-)rokers
ArrayLongkanker bij patienten die nooit gerookt hebben is agressiever door genmutaties
Woekerend weefsel bij niet-rokers met longkanker is genetisch veel meer ontspoord dan in de gezwellen van (ex-)rokers met longkanker. Dit wijst erop dat longkanker bij niet-rokers feitelijk een andere, complexere aandoening is, die om een andere behandeling vraagt. Dit is deze week bekend gemaakt bij het zojuist afgesloten 14de World Conference on Lung Cancer in Amsterdam, van de International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
“Er zijn verschillende genetische afwijkingen gevonden in long-tumoren van rokers en niet-rokers,” verklaart principal investigator Kelsie Thu, van het BC Cancer Agency Research Centre in Vancouver, Canada. “Bij niet-rokers met longkanker vonden we meer afwijkingen, zowel in aantal als in plaats op het cel-DNA van tumorweefsel. Dit wijst erop, dat er bij niet-rokers andere processen een rol spelen bij het ontstaan en de ontwikkeling van longkanker, dan bij rokers. Tevens betekent dit, dat er andere behandelmethoden voor hen ontwikkeld moeten worden.â€
Wereldwijd treft longkanker in ongeveer 25% van de gevallen mensen die nooit hebben gerookt. Het was al wel opgevallen dat dit relatief meer vrouwen zijn, vaker Aziaten, en dat er bij niet-rokers vaker sprake is van een agressief type longkanker (adenocarcinoma). In dit nieuwe onderzoek zijn verschillen aangetoond in onder meer gen-mutaties die met groeifactoren te maken hebben.
Drs Cilia Linssen van het Longkanker Informatie Centrum stelde naar aanleiding van deze resultaten: “In de eerste plaats is het sowieso belangrijk om te weten dat longkanker niet altijd te maken heeft met roken. Roken is ontegenzeggelijk een risicofactor, maar kennelijk kan de celgroei in de longen ook door andere oorzaken ontsporen en gaan woekeren. Het is belangrijk om te weten welke gen-mutaties hierbij een rol spelen, omdat bepaalde behandelmethoden zich nu en in de toekomst juist op dergelijke groeifactoren kunnen richten.
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Lung adenocarcinoma genomes of never smokers exhibit a greater extent of genomic instability
than those of smokers
K. Thu, D. Becker, R. Chari, W. Zhang, C.E. MacAulay, A.F. Gazdar, S. Lam, W. Lam
1. Background
Never smokers (NS) with lung cancer typically exhibit clinical and molecular traits different from
those of smokers. They are more often women (especially of Asian ethnicity), have higher
EGFR mutation frequencies, better responses to EGFR targeting drugs, and are more
commonly diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. These observations have led to the hypothesis that
lung cancer in NS is its own disease, distinct from that in smokers. Based on this theory, we
hypothesized that tumor genomes of smokers and NS harbor distinct patterns of genomic
alterations at the copy number level, which could provide evidence that tumors in these cohorts
arise through different molecular mechanisms.
2. Methods
DNA was extracted from lung adenocarcinomas and matched non-malignant tissues for 30 NS,
14 former smokers (FS), and 39 current smokers (CS) and was applied to Affymetrix SNP
arrays and assessed for EGFR and KRAS mutations. Copy number profiles were generated for
each tumor using matched non-malignant lung tissue as a baseline for the identification of
somatic copy number alterations. Two independent, publically available datasets comprised of
lung adenocarcinomas from NS and smokers were used as validation datasets.
3. Results
The incidence of EGFR and KRAS mutations in our cohort were consistent with literature
confirming the accuracy of smoking status classification for the 83 tumors. Tumor genomes of
NS and ever smokers (ES = CS and FS combined) shared several common regions of copy
number alteration such as chromosome 17q gains and 9p losses. Several differentially altered
regions were also identified including 1p gains in NS and 1q gains in ES. We also observed
global differences in tumor genomes from NS and ES. On average, NS lung tumors showed
trends of higher frequencies of copy number alterations and greater proportions of their
genomes altered compared to ES. This difference was more pronounced when FS were
excluded and NS were compared to CS only (p=0.06). The difference in proportion of genome
altered between NS and CS was confirmed in two validation cohorts using copy number profiles
generated on two different platforms. Regions differentially altered between NS and CS in our
cohort were investigated in two validation cohorts, revealing 6 minimal common regions present
in all three datasets, which harbored only 13 genes. All 6 regions identified were NS-specific
copy number gains spanning regions on chromosomes 5, 7 and 16.
4. Conclusion
We identified both regional disparities and global differences in the genomic alteration patterns
of lung adenocarcinoma genomes from NS and smokers. NS lung tumor genomes appear to
have a greater extent of genome instability, as they exhibit higher frequencies of copy number
alterations than those of smokers. Our findings support the concept that lung cancers in
smokers and NS arise through different pathogenic pathways, and suggest that the
carcinogen(s) associated with lung cancer in NS result in the early onset of genomic instability.
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About the IASLC:
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), based in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., is the only global organization dedicated to the study of lung cancer. Founded in 1972, the association’s membership includes more than 3,000 lung cancer specialists in 80 countries.
IASLC members promote the study of etiology, epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and all other aspects of lung cancer and thoracic malignancies. IASLC disseminates information about lung cancer to scientists, members of the medical community and the public, and uses all available means to eliminate lung cancer as a health threat for the individual patients and throughout the world. Membership is open to any physician, health professional or scientist interested in lung cancer.
IASLC publishes the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, a valuable resource for medical specialists and scientists who focus on the detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
To learn more about IASLC please visit http://iaslc.org/