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Possible Benefit From Online Genetic Testing For Lung Cancer 

As scientists continue to decode the human genome and the information becomes publicly available, private companies that offer online genetic testing are multiplying. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health were concerned that perhaps these tests posed a risk.

They evaluated responses to an online test among smokers who did or did not have a common genetic variant associated with risk for lung cancer. The results, published in a recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, raise a new set of questions, but also allay some of the early concerns.

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$2 million grant aids study of lung cancer in people who never smoked 

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are among an elite group of cancer scientists to share a $2 million grant to find biomarkers for lung cancer that develops in people who have never smoked.

The National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) and the Canary Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds research in early cancer detection, are providing initial funding of $1 million each for the first year of this project. The partnership will support studies designed to create a further understanding of the biology of lung cancer and to develop a test to detect early-stage lung cancer in lifetime nonsmokers.

Dr. Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology in UT Southwestern's Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, is the principal investigator for the EDRN project, which will be conducted at five sites across the country.

Dr. Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology in the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research

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Small Molecule Might Play Big Part in Lung Cancer  

Researchers have isolated a small molecule that might play a big part in a form of lung cancer that typically strikes people who have never smoked, opening up the possibilities for new treatments for this deadly malignancy.

The microRNA miR-21 was found particularly elevated in adenocarcinomas that affect never-smokers, especially in individuals who tested positive for mutations in their epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. Annually, more than 10 percent of lung cancers strike people who never touched a cigarette.

Japanese and American researchers involved in this new study believe that the miR-21 protein is not merely a marker of disease, such as PSA levels are in prostate cancer screenings, but an actual contributor to the cancer process. The findings appear in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Small Molecule Might Play Big Part in Lung Cancer  

Researchers have isolated a small molecule that might play a big part in a form of lung cancer that typically strikes people who have never smoked, opening up the possibilities for new treatments for this deadly malignancy.

The microRNA miR-21 was found particularly elevated in adenocarcinomas that affect never-smokers, especially in individuals who tested positive for mutations in their epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. Annually, more than 10 percent of lung cancers strike people who never touched a cigarette.

Japanese and American researchers involved in this new study believe that the miR-21 protein is not merely a marker of disease, such as PSA levels are in prostate cancer screenings, but an actual contributor to the cancer process. The findings appear in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Smoking doesn't affect COPD the same 

Cigarette smoking induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worsens in some smokers, but skips other smokers, Canadian researchers said.

Dr.Manuel Cosio from the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal in collaboration with Italian and Spanish scientists, said COPD has a family connection and next of kin of patients with COPD have a much higher chance of developing the disease -- a characteristic of autoimmune diseases.

Smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD in the Western world, however, open fire pollutant cooking and heating fuels in the home is an important risk factor for the development of COPD in women in developing nations.

"COPD does not go from stage one, two and three in all people," Cosio said in a statement. "

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Genes: An extra hurdle to quitting smoking during pregnancy? 

A common genetic variant that explains why some women may find it more difficult to quit smoking during pregnancy

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School and the University of Bristol, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and the Exeter Family Study of Childhood Health, have identified a common genetic variant that explains why some women may find it more difficult to quit smoking during pregnancy.

Their paper, "A common genetic variant in 15q24 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene cluster (CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4) is associated with a reduced ability of women to quit smoking in pregnancy", is published in Human Molecular Genetics.

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Online Genetic Testing Appears to Have Benefits 

Online genetic testing for lung cancer appears to offer some benefits to patients, according to U.S. researchers who evaluated the use of an online test among 44 smokers.

"Up until now we have had a clear model for genetic testing. You see a professional genetics counselor, undergo a battery of tests and that professional helps you interpret your results," Saskia Sanderson, who conducted the study while at the social and behavioral research branch of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.

"That model is coming under increasing pressure as more and more genetic information is generated, and as a greater number of genetic tests become available on the Internet," Sanderson added.

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Babies, Smoking and Genes 

A pregnant mother's lifestyle choices can lead to serious disease notonly in her infant's early childhood but in that child's middle age. That will ultimately have an effect on the national economy.

When a pregnant woman visits her obstetrician for the first time, she is likely to hear that smoking is a hazard to the child that she is carrying. Toxic chemicals that the mother inhales while smoking enter her bloodstream and cross the placenta to the baby.

Women who smoke during the first three months of pregnancy make it 60 percent more likely that their baby will be born with a heart defect. In the case of certain types of defects, it is 80 percent.

Some women who smoke will deliver a child too early or one who has not reached normal size.

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'Cannabis alters human DNA' -- new study 

A new study published by University of Leicester researchers has found "convincing evidence" that cannabis smoke damages DNA in ways that could potentially increase the risk of cancer development in humans.

Using a newly developed highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method, the University of Leicester scientists found clear indication that cannabis smoke damages DNA, under laboratory conditions. . . .

"There have been many studies on the toxicity of tobacco smoke. It is known that tobacco smoke contains 4000 chemicals of which 60 are classed as carcinogens. Cannabis in contrast has not been so well studied. It is less combustible than tobacco and is often mixed with tobacco in use. Cannabis smoke contains 400 compounds including 60 cannabinoids. However, because of its lower combustibility it contains 50% more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene, benzanthracene, and benzopyrene, than tobacco smoke."

Writing in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the scientists describe the development of a mass spectrometry method that provides a clear indication that cannabis smoke damages DNA, under laboratory conditions.

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Social- and Behavioral-Specific Genetic Effects on Blood Pressure Traits: The Strong Heart Family Study  

Conclusions--Our findings suggest that behavioral and socioeconomic factors can modify the genetic effects on blood pressure phenotypes. Accounting for context dependent factors may help us to better understand the complexities of the gene effects on blood pressure and other complex phenotypes with high levels of genetic heterogeneity.

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Lifestyle May Counter Blood Pressure Genes  

Being born with genes that predispose you to high blood pressure doesn't mean you're doomed to have it, a long-term study shows.

"It's been known for many years that blood pressure is affected by genes," said Dr. Nora Franceschini, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and lead author of a report on the study. "It's also known that lifestyle affects blood pressure. Now we are showing that they interact, and that the effect of those genes varies among individuals who have different behaviors."

It's an important finding because high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. The study, reported online Tuesday in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, "reinforces the message that lifestyle changes can alter the effect of genetics," Franceschini said.

That message comes from the Strong Heart Family Study, which has been looking at diabetes and high blood pressure among American Indians in Arizona, North and South Dakota and Oklahoma, an ethnic group in which the incidence of both is high. The study now includes more than 3,600 people aged 14 to 93.

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'Cannabis alters human DNA'  

The researchers add that the ability of cannabis smoke to damage DNA has significant human health implications especially as users tend to inhale more deeply than cigarette smokers, which increases respiratory burden. "The smoking of 3-4 cannabis cigarettes a day is associated with the same degree of damage to bronchial mucus membranes as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day," the team adds.

"These results provide evidence for the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke," the researchers conclude, "implying that the consumption of cannabis cigarettes may be detrimental to human health with the possibility to initiate cancer development."

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Nicotine's Double Role In Lung Cancer 

A lung cancer treatment that inhibits nicotine receptors was shown to double survival time in mice, according to Italian researchers.

The results of the early phase animal model study were reported in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Changes in genes encoding nicotine receptors are strongly associated not only with the tendency to smoke, but with susceptibility to lung cancer. Nicotine exposure also heightens the expression of the nicotine receptors, which leads to increased cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis, further setting the stage for cancer.

Patrizia Russo, Ph.D. and Laura Paleari, Ph.D. of the Lung Cancer Unit of the National Cancer Research Institute in Genoa, Italy and colleagues from San Raffaele Pisana Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care (IRCCS), Catholic University, Campus Biomedico University in Rome, Mario Negri Institute in Milan and CEA Gyf sur Yvette in France showed in past research that an antagonist of nicotine acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), may serve as an anticancer agent. The antagonist, called d-tubocurarine/α-Cobratoxin (α-CbT), specifically targeted the α7 subunit of nAChRs, the area primarily associated with increased cell proliferation.

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Smokers can take cancer risk test 

New Zealand researchers said yesterday they have developed the world's first test to measure the risk for individual smokers and ex-smokers of developing lung cancer.

The test combines results of DNA analysis with other risk factors such as age, diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema and family lung cancer history, said University of Auckland associate professor Robert Young.

"All smokers face an increased risk of developing lung cancer, among a host of other serious health problems, but for some individuals the risk is much greater than for others," Young said.

"With this test, doctors will be able to identify those at greatest risk while there is still time to help."

The test obtains a patient's DNA from a simple mouth swab.

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Cisplatin doubles lung cancer survival time in mice 

A lung cancer treatment that inhibits nicotine receptors was shown to double survival time in mice, according to Italian researchers.

The results of the early phase animal model study were reported in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Changes in genes encoding nicotine receptors are strongly associated not only with the tendency to smoke, but with susceptibility to lung cancer. Nicotine exposure also heightens the expression of the nicotine receptors, which leads to increased cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis, further setting the stage for cancer.

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