Genetic analysis in early age of onset lung cancer patie

我们分析了60例年龄小于50岁、大于79岁或年龄在57-72岁之间的患者的配对肺腺癌和邻近非肿瘤组织，在5条常见的染色体臂（包括3p、3q、9p、17p和19p）中存在LOH。进一步的遗传分析指出，染色体3p21.2上一个2mb的区域包含了大约50个基因，这一区域与50岁以下肺癌患者的关系最为密切。我们的数据首次提供了将极端年龄人群的肺癌易感性与人类基因组中特定的基因改变联系起来的直接证据。我们现在正在对原发肿瘤和匹配的正常肺中的这些候选基因进行测序，以确定这些基因的突变是否可能导致肺癌的发展。进一步的研究也在进行中，以确定这些基因的细胞位置及其在细胞生长和肿瘤形成中的潜在分子功能。

We have analyzed paired lung adenocarcinomas and adjacent non-tumor tissues from 60 patients who were less than 50, older than 79, or between 57-72 years of age at the time of diagnosis for the presence of LOH in five commonly affected chromosome arms including 3p, 3q, 9p, 17p, and 19p. Further genetic analyses pointed a 2 Mb region containing roughly 50 genes at chromosome 3p21.2 as the region most strongly associated with patients who had lung cancers younger than age 50. Our data is the first to provide direct evidence linking lung cancer susceptibility in extreme-age populations to a specific genetic alteration in the human genome. We are now sequence these candidate genes in primary tumors and the matched normal lungs to determine if mutations in these genes might contribute to lung cancer development. Additional studies are also underway to determine the cellular location of these genes and their potential molecular function in cell growth and tumor formation.