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• Ohio researchers ID gene related to lung cancer 

A gene identified by University of Cincinnati researchers could be used to identify people at high risk for developing lung cancer.

Smokers with the gene could be directed toward earlier, more aggressive lung cancer checks, said Marshall Anderson, the cancer biologist who led the study, while younger people with the gene could be discouraged from smoking in the first place.

Discovering the gene, dubbed RGS17, "could change clinical diagnosis and treatment as radically as the discovery of the breast cancer genes did," Anderson said. "A proven genetic test could help us identify people at risk before the disease progresses."

Anderson has led the multi-institutional Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer Consortium since 1997.

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