Some smokers may be more sensitive to damage from tobacco smoke DNA and thus more likely to develop lung cancer. Preliminary results of a population study, reported in the April 15 issue of Cancer , identify one of the many long-sought genetic factors that may increase susceptibility to the disease. If the results are confirmed, they could possibly lead to a blood test to screen for sensitive people with lung cancer.
Although 0% of all lung cancers are linked to tobacco smoke, only about 10% of smokers get cancer. To fathom why some smokers are sensitive and others are not, Xifeng Wu and Margaret Spitz at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and colleagues studied alterations in chromosome 9. Other groups have observed that in cells tumor of lung cancer patients, chromosome often lacks a portion of its DNA or has acquired a piece of another chromosome -. a problem attributed to carcinogens DNA damaging agents in tobacco
Wu and Spitz studied the chromosomes of normal cells - in this case, the white blood cells - from 97 Mexican and African Americans newly diagnosed with lung cancer. The researchers asked participants about their lifestyles and family history of cancer, as part of a study on lung cancer risk factors among minorities. The group had 43 sections or other alterations in the missing chromosome 9. People with genetic damage were 8.5 times more likely to have parents suffering from lung cancer than those who had normal copies of chromosome 9. "It suggests that there could be some form of genetic instability" in the chromosome which can be inherited, said Spitz.
results suggest a potential "inherited genetic susceptibility" to smoke tobacco, says molecular biologist dawn Willis of the American cancer Society in Atlanta, which can put some smokers at increased risk of lung cancer. First, however, more rigorous studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis, warns Michael Kelley oncologist from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The number of subjects was small and was limited to minority populations; Therefore, he said, the results "may simply be due to chance."
0 Komentar