Lung Health News, Fall 2005 / Winter 2006
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in this country, killing more people than breast, prostate and colorectal cancer combined. More than 170,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year and nearly 90 percent are either current or former smokers.
Early detection is critical to improving chances of survival. Research indicates that when lung cancer is diagnosed in an early stage and surgery is possible,
five-year survival rates can reach 85 percent. Survival rates decline dramatically after the cancer has spread to other organs and unfortunately, only 15 percent of cases are detected at that early stage.
Juliana Oh, Ph.D., hopes that someday her research into a gene that suppresses tumor growth will eventually help reduce lung cancer deaths. Her project was refunded by the American Lung Association of California, allowing her to work on the study at the University of California, Los Angeles, for another year.
It seems that the suppressor gene is not present in people who get lung cancer, allowing lung cancer tumors to grow. Oh thinks the carcinogens in tobacco somehow destroy the tumor-suppressor gene in some people.
“When people smoke, the region of the chromosome containing this suppressor gene may get deleted,” Oh says. “The significance is that if we could figure out how to test for this gene in smokers as well as lung cancer patients, the lack of it would suggest higher likelihood of developing lung cancer and/or poorer prognosis.
It would allow physicians to detect lung cancer development before any tumors have the opportunity to grow.”
It may also be possible to eventually use the gene to treat cancer after it has been diagnosed. “If we can somehow add it back to lung cancer patients, it could be a way to slow tumor growth,” Oh explains. “That’s the long-shot idea behind gene therapy.”
