To understand the newest genetic discoveries concerning lung cancer, we need to take a look at the disease on several levels.
Let’s Get Statistical:
On the statistical level, it has been proven that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Let’s look at a few basic facts about this disease:
1. America will lose 160,000 people to lung cancer this year.
2. We will spend over $12 billion on lung cancer treatments, according to the National Cancer Institute.
3. Eighty percent of the diagnosed patients die within five years of their diagnosis. Part of the reason for this is that lung cancer has a singular ability to move throughout the body and attack other systems. This ability to spread is known as metastasis.
4. Scientists are just beginning to understand the aggressive tendency of lung cancer to spread throughout the body.
Let’s Get Molecular:
Reuben J. Shaw, Salk professor of molecular and cell biology recently stated, “Lung cancer, even when it’s discovered early, is often able to metastasize almost immediately and take hold throughout the body. The reason behind why some tumors do that and others don’t has not been very well understood.” He and many other researchers are in high hopes that current research might help explain the fast rate at which lung cancer can spread.
The big news is that a “gene responsible for stopping the movement of cancer from the lungs to other parts of the body” has been discovered by researchers. It is known as LKB1. By manipulating it, we might have a new weapon in our lung cancer fighting arsenal.
Lung cancer cells become mobilized for other systems by overriding the cellular safeguards. In other words, “cancer cells override cellular machinery that typically keeps cells rooted within their respective locations.”
Lung cancer cells can activate or shut down the “molecular anchors,” protruding from the cell membrane. These mechanisms are known as focal adhesion complexes, and they can prepare cells for migration. Hijacking the cells puts the cancer cell in charge and “allows cancer cells to travel through the bloodstream and take up residence in new organs.”
In addition to different cancers being able to manipulate those anchors mentioned above, researchers had previously noted that one “fifth of lung cancer cases are missing an anti-cancer gene called LKB1.”
Cancers cases without LKB1 are the most aggressive with a rapid growth rate. Such cancers have the capacity to overwhelm the body. At first no one knew how LKB1 and focal adhesions were connected.
Let’s Get Experimental:
Now, the Salk team has found the connection: a little-known gene called DIXDC1. The interaction between DIXDC1 and LKB1 appears to have an important influence on cancer cells mobility.
Goodwin stated, “It was very, very surprising that this gene would be so powerful.”
“The good news is that this finding predicts that patients missing either gene should be sensitive to new therapies targeting focal adhesion enzymes, which are currently being tested in early-stage clinical trials.” The European Lung Federation summarized the findings this way:
“When “switched on,” DIXDC1 causes tumor cells to stick to each other. However, when it is inactive the cells can break away and travel to other parts of the body where they embed themselves and can cause other tumors.” Now, having looked at the rapid growth on the statistical, molecular and experimental level, FLASS hopes you have an improved idea of what doctors are doing to improve the survival rates for patients battling this terrible disease.
You can go to this authoritative online resource to see more about the ongoing studies and the recent Salk Institute experiments with these genes, and focal adhesion complexes.
