Lung Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Lung Cancer, including details on symptoms, smoking, genetics, treatment, causes.

Wnt pathway aberrations including autocrine Wnt activation occur at high frequency in human non-small-cell lung carcinoma.

Akiri G, Cherian MM, Vijayakumar S, Liu G, Bafico A, Aaronson SA

Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs), which represent around 80% of lung tumors, exhibit poor prognosis and are usually refractory to conventional chemotherapy. Elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that are dysregulated in NSCLCs may lead to new possibilities for targeted therapy or enhanced efficacy of current therapies. Here we demonstrate Wnt pathway activation in around 50% of human NSCLC cell lines and primary tumors, through different mechanisms, including autocrine Wnt pathway activation involving upregulation of specific Wnt ligands. Downregulation of activated Wnt signaling inhibited NSCLC proliferation and induced a more differentiated phenotype. Together, our findings establish importance of activated Wnt signaling in human NSCLCs and offer the possibility of targeting upregulated Wnt signaling as a new therapeutic modality for this disease.

Published 8 June 2009 in Oncogene, 28(21): 2163-72.
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Articles on Lung Cancer published 5 June 2009:

Repeated aerosol delivery of carboxyl-terminal modulator protein suppresses tumor in the lungs of K-rasLA1 mice.   Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 179(12): 1131-40.

RATIONALE: Difficulties in achieving long-term survival of patients with lung cancer treated with conventional therapies suggest that novel approaches are required. Recent advances in aerosol-mediated gene delivery have provided the possibility of an alternative for the safe and effective treatment of lung cancer. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the repeated effect of carboxyl-terminal modulator protein (CTMP) on multistage lung tumorigenesis. In this study, we addressed this question by studying ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Inhibition of nonneuronal alpha7-nicotinic receptor for lung cancer treatment.   Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 179(12): 1141-50.

RATIONALE: Studies strongly suggest that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors for nicotine (nAChRs) play a significant role in lung cancer predisposition and natural history. The nAChR alpha7 subunit has been found to be pivotal in the control of nicotine-induced lung cancer development and in growth signal transduction induced by nicotine binding to nAChRs. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the anticancer effects of alpha7-nAChR antagonists. METHODS: (1) To check the correlation between alpha7-nAChR ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Lung Cancer published 4 June 2009:

Common genetic variants on 5p15.33 contribute to risk of lung adenocarcinoma in a Chinese population.   Carcinogenesis, 30(6): 987-90.

Chromosome 5p15.33, containing TERT and CLPTM1L genes, was recently identified as one of the susceptible regions for lung cancer in Caucasian populations. We hypothesized that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in this region in Caucasians are also important in the development of lung cancer in Chinese population. To test this hypothesis, we genotyped two most significant SNPs reported in Caucasians, rs2736100A/C and rs402710C/T at 5p15.33, in a case-control study with 1221 ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Lung tumor promotion by curcumin.   Carcinogenesis, 30(6): 1016-23.

Curcumin exhibits anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity and is being tested in clinical trials as a chemopreventive agent for colon cancer. Curcumin's chemopreventive activity was tested in a transgenic mouse model of lung cancer that expresses the human Ki-ras(G12C) allele in a doxycycline (DOX) inducible and lung-specific manner. The effects of curcumin were compared with the lung tumor promoter, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and the lung cancer chemopreventive agent, sulindac. Treatment ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Lung Cancer published 1 June 2009:

Dose-finding study of weekly docetaxel, epirubicin and capecitabine, as first-line treatment in advanced breast cancer.   Cancer Chemother Pharmacol, 64(2): 407-12.

BACKGROUND: Combinations of anthracycline, taxane and fluoropyrimidine are highly active in advanced breast cancer (ABC). In a phase II study of epirubicin 50 mg/m(2), docetaxel 75 mg/m(2), and infusional 5-FU 200 mg/m(2)/day, we found dose-limiting neutropenia and frequent central venous catheter complications. An alternative approach has been tested using weekly fractionation of docetaxel, and oral capecitabine. METHODS: Initially, six women with ABC were treated with epirubicin 60 mg/m(2) ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Lung Cancer published 29 May 2009:

Epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in plasma DNA samples predict tumor response in Chinese patients with stages IIIB to IV non-small-cell lung cancer.   J Clin Oncol, 27(16): 2653-9.

PURPOSE: Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase domain can predict tumor response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, obtaining tumor tissues for mutation analysis is challenging. We hypothesized that plasma-based EGFR mutation analysis is feasible and has value in predicting tumor response in patients with NSCLC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Plasma DNA samples and matched tumors from 230 patients with stages IIIB to IV NSCLC ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Genome-wide analysis of survival in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.   J Clin Oncol, 27(16): 2660-7.

PURPOSE: Lung cancer, of which 85% is non-small-cell (NSCLC), is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. We used genome-wide analysis of tumor tissue to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in tumors are prognostic factors in early-stage NSCLC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred early-stage NSCLC patients from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) were used as a discovery set and 89 NSCLC patients collected by the National Institute of Occupational ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Lung Cancer published 28 May 2009:

Microwave ablation compared with radiofrequency ablation in lung tissue-is microwave not just for popcorn anymore?   Radiology, 251(3): 617-8.

In this issue of Radiology, Brace et al (1) showed that, compared with radiofrequency (RF) ablation, larger and more circular zones of thermal necrosis with faster growth of the ablation zone can be achieved with microwave ablation in a swine lung model. To my knowledge, this study is the first comparison of these ablation modalities in the lung and, given the observed differences, future clinical trials for evaluation of available technologies for the treatment of patients with pulmonary ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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