Has the gene which causes lung cancer been identified? Has it been mapped?
Question by Abbie W: Has the gene which causes lung cancer been identified? Has it been mapped?
If so, could you please tell me which ethnic group contains copies of this gene and the evolutionary history of the gene, or where to find this information?
Thank you so much!
I know that cancer is not a genetically transmitted disease. This question is part of a genetics project for my class where we had to make a family health history and then answer the given questions about a disease that runs in our family. Are these questions not relevant to lung cancer, and should be viewed as not applicable?
Best answer:
Answer by Sandely65
Lung cancer usually isn’t caused by a gene, it’s caused by smoking. I’ve never heard of lung cancer being genetic.
What do you think? Answer below!
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Most cancers are caused by environmental factors and random chance, not genetics.
Quote, ‘Less than 0.3% of the population are carriers of a genetic mutation which has a large effect on cancer risk’
The types of cancer where genetics can play a part in increased risk are mostly breast cancer and cancers of the colon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer#Heredity
The overall point is, the way you stated your question shows a misunderstanding of the causes of cancer, genetics plays a part but genes themselves do not cause cancer. Cancer happens when a cell gets damaged and starts mutating and reproducing uncontrollably.
Lung, skin cancer genes decoded
Early Detection, Better Drugs, Customized Therapy Ahead
London: Scientists have identified all the changes in cells of two cancers to produce the first entire cancer gene maps, calling the findings a “transforming moment” in their understanding of the disease.
The mapping of the complete genetic codes of melanoma skin cancer and lung cancer will set the stage for a medical revolution in which every tumour can be targeted with personalized therapy.
The studies by international scientists and Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge are the first comprehensive descriptions of tumour cell mutations and lay bare all the genetic changes behind the two cancers. Such a detailed picture of the fundamental causes of the disease will lead to earlier detection, new breeds of drugs and better understanding of what causes the disease, scientists claim.
“What we are seeing today is going the transform the way that we see cancer,” Mike Stratton of the Sanger Institute’s cancer genome project told a briefing in London. “We have never seen cancer revealed in this form before.”
The scientists sequenced all the DNA from both tumour tissue and normal tissue from a melanoma patient and a lung cancer patient using a technology called massively parallel sequencing. By comparing the cancer sequences with the healthy ones, they were able to pick up all changes specific to cancer.
The lung tumour carried more than 23,000 mutations and the melanoma had more than 33,000.
Peter Campbell, also of the Sanger Institute, said the lung cancer study suggests a typical smoker develops one mutation for every 15 cigarettes smoked and the damage starts with the first puff. Lung cancer kills around 1 million people worldwide each year and 90% cases are caused by smoking.
“These catalogues of mutations… will inform us on prevention and include all the drivers, which tell us about processes disrupted in the cancer cell which we can try and influence through our treatments,” Stratton said. AGENCIES
http://www.epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?…&GZ=T