In a major study that could help treat lung cancer at the genetic level, an Indian-origin doctor in the US has, for the first time, landscaped the genome of cancer cells in both smokers and non-smokers. Smokers showed a higher number of mutations than those who had never smoked in their lives.
Dr Ramaswamy Govindan, professor of medicine in the oncology division, Washington University School of Medicine, USA, and his team found several new gene alterations in cancer patients not previously reported. “The number of mutations in non-smokers with lung cancer is significantly lower than that in smokers. By looking at the entire genome of tumour specimens, we found at least one critical gene mutation that can be treated in every one of our non-smokers,” Dr Ramaswamy said.
He said with new tools and technologies, the team will now study the tumour genomic landscape to identify new targets for treatment of cancer. “This is going to revolutionise our treatment” Cancer is a disease where genes inside the cells get mutated. There are trillions of normal cells in the body. Each and every cell has about 2,00,000 genes. These genes get altered more if one smokes, drinks or eats a poor and unhealthy diet.
About 10 per cent of patients with lung cancer in the US and Europe do not report any history of smoking. The number of non-smokers with lung cancer is high in certain parts of Asia, including India.
Lung cancer in non-smokers is seen in women more than in men. “We observed all the genes in cancer specimens from patients with lung cancer. We compared the full complement of genomes not only from the patients’ tumour cells, but also from their normal cells, to figure out how many and what genes were uniquely altered,” Dr Ramaswamy explained.