Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the US and worldwide. Most patients who develop lung cancer have a history of smoking cigarettes. However, about 1 in 10 lung cancer patients has no history of direct tobacco exposure. A majority of these patients are women and have a subtype of lung cancer with adenocarcinoma histology. It is believed that that these "never smokers" may have genes that predispose them to lung cancer. No such genes have yet been identified.
The purpose of this study is to determine if collecting information and blood from a group of people who never smoked but who have lung cancer is possible across the US.
Researchers will collect information on each patient's diagnosis and treatments. If the collection is successful, blood samples will be used for so-called "whole genome association studies" to look for differences between the genomes of never smokers with and without lung cancer. This may help to identify new genes, which may explain and predict why certain patients develop lung cancer without having smoked tobacco. This is the first step to establish strategies to prevent lung cancer or find people who are at high risk for this disease.
Official Website – [permalink]
Friday, November 21, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment