Gene mutation tied to lung cancer. (Genetics).Scientists have found a gene on chromosome 19 that's often mutated in people with lung adenocarcinoma adenocarcinoma: see neoplasm. , a kind of cancer responsible for about half of all lung tumors. The gene, called LKB LKB Lord Krishna Bank (India) LKB Link Belt Company LKB Linux Kernel Booter LKB Lexical Knowledge Bases LKB Linguistic Knowledge Building 1/STK11, was mutated in 8 of 24 lung adenocarcinoma tumors that the researchers analyzed but was normal in all 17 samples of other types of lung tumors, says Montserrat Sanchez-Cespedes, who was part of the team that made the discovery at Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. Medical Institutions in Baltimore. Scientists have identified few mutations linked to lung cancer lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs after repeated insults to the genetic material of the cell. , says Sanchez-Cespedes, now at the Spanish National Cancer Center in Madrid. LKB1/STK11 encodes a protein that appears to be a tumor suppressor sup·pres·sor n. 1. or sup·press·er One that suppresses: a suppressor of free speech. 2. A gene that suppresses the phenotypic expression of another gene, especially of a mutant gene. , but the protein's precise function remains unknown, she says. Lung adenocarcinoma, a non-small-cell lung cancer, tends to resist the effects of chemotherapy. "We hope these findings will help early diagnosis of this tumor" and perhaps even lead to new targets for treating this particularly lethal form of cancer, Sanchez-Cespedes says. --N.S. |
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