Smoking causes 37 000 genetic mutations in the body
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The mortality from lung cancer exceeds the number of deaths from any other form of cancer. More than 1.6 million people put this terrible diagnosis, and 20% of them do not live and five years.
Smokers are at risk of developing lung cancer 10 times more than those who do not smoke.
"None of us were surprised that there is more mutation in the genome of smokers than in the genome of people who never smoked," says senior study author Richard Wilson, Ph.D., director of the Genome Institute at the University of Washington. "The real revelation was that the genetic mutations of smoking people diagnosed with lung cancer are 10 times greater than the number of mutations in a person's tumor that never smoked."
In all, about 37 thousand genetic changes in squamous cell lung cancer were detected.
"During the year we conducted a study of the genome of almost a thousand cancer patients. For the first time, we saw an unfolded picture, and not just peeked into the keyhole, "says Ramaswami Govindan, an oncologist at the University of Washington. "So we're moving in the right direction - toward future clinical trials that will focus on the specific molecular biology of the patient's cancer."
Studies have identified new types of mutations and showed a clear difference between lung cancer in nonsmokers and smokers. In addition, experts have found that genetic changes in squamous cell lung cancer are more similar to mutations of squamous cell carcinoma of the neck and head than to other types of lung cancer.
This again serves as a confirmation that the classification of oncological diseases should occur on the basis of molecular profiles, and not at the place of their origin. This will allow the patient to be treated, which will be more effective.
According to scientists, the prospects for the results of the study are obvious. Instead of collecting patients with cancer in one large unit and also massively treated, it is necessary to divide them according to the categories of genetic changes and prescribe the appropriate treatment for them.
Therapeutic methods directed against specific mutations are more effective and have fewer side effects.
For the treatment of adenocarcinoma (a malignant tumor consisting of glandular epithelial cells that form part of most internal organs of the human body) a number of targeted drugs have already been approved.
Scientists hope that the results will be the basis for personalized treatment - more effective and appropriate to the specific genetic characteristics of the patient's tumor.
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