Tumor genome analysis unveils new insights into l...( An international consortium of scient...)

An international consortium of scientists today in an advanced online publication in the journal Nature revealed a comprehensive view of the altered genetic background of the type of lung cancer that is the most common cause of cancer deaths in humans.

Of particular interest was a specific proto-oncogene called NKX2-1 that appears involved in as many as 12 percent of lung adenocarcinomas the most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, said the group, whose work was in part financed by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The group noted, however, that analysis indicates that many of the genes that play a role in the disease remain to be discovered.

This view of the lung cancer genome is unprecedented, both in its breadth and depth, said senior author Dr. Matthew Meyerson, a senior associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., and an associate professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. It lays an essential foundation, and has already pinpointed an important gene that controls the growth of lung cells. This information offers crucial inroads to the biology of lung cancer and will help shape new strategies for cancer diagnosis and therapy

The report is the first to emerge from the Tumor Sequencing Project that involves three genome centers: Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and five cancer centers: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the University of Michigan and Washington University.

Each year, more than 1 million people worldwide die of lung cancer. In the United States, the annual death toll is 150,000. Lung adenocarcinoma, the topic of this study, is the most common cause of
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