By Admin at 16 May 2016, 09:00 AM

Researchers are increasingly looking to identify so-called “driver mutations” in cancers. These mutations are the ones responsible for tumor growth, while the remaining “passenger” mutations are neutral. By identifying the driver mutations, new treatments can be developed to target the driver mutations directly to stop tumor progression.

Together, U.S. and Russian researchers have identified several driver mutations for lung cancer, which they believe may be responsive to targeted therapies and immunotherapy.

The researchers analyzed 1,144 genome profiles from patients with lung adenocarcinoma or lung squamous cell carcinoma, which are two of the most common types of lung cancer. Thirty-eight significantly mutated genes were discovered in lung adenocarcinoma and 20 in lung squamous cell carcinoma.

Only six mutated genes were shared, however, which suggests the tumors differ significantly between the two cancer types. In fact, lung squamous cell carcinoma was found to be more similar to head and neck tumors and certain bladder carcinomas than to lung adenocarcinomas.

The analysis further revealed that 47 percent of lung adenocarcinoma and 53 percent of lung squamous cell carcinoma have at least five neoepitopes, or unique mutations, that might be potential targets for immunotherapy.

The neoepitomes are likely to be recognized by the immune system, which the researchers believe may make them strong targets for cancer vaccines. Researcher Anton Aleksandrov, researcher at ITMO University in Russia, explained:

"The immune system is highly selective; we simply need to suggest to it that it didn't notice something really important … Cells constantly provide protein pieces called epitopes to the immune system for review. If, for some reason, the immune system is not able to capture the epitope of a mutated protein and misses it, the tumor may arise.

The search for epitopes that can be detected by the immune system of a patient is critical to the development of individual treatment strategies for cancer. Attached to proteins, neoepitopes will prompt the immune system where its help is needed."

In the hopes of designing better drug treatments, the researchers called for future studies to determine why a mutation may cause uncontrolled growth in certain cell types but not others. The potential for new immunotherapy treatments for lung cancer is especially promising since lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and the second most common cancer among both men and women in the United States.

To date, survival rates for lung cancer haven’t improved the way they have for some other types of cancers. However, the good news is that recent breakthroughs such as immunotherapy treatments and others are paving the way for life-saving improvements in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Sources:
Medical Xpress May 10, 2016
Nature Genetics May 9, 2016

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