Loss of key genetic shield aggravates lung cancer

Flaws in a key gene called LKB1 help lung cancers develop swiftly into dangerous, metastasising tumours, a paper released on Sunday by the British journal Nature says. LKB1 has previously been identified as helping the body to suppress cancer.

Mutations that disabled this gene were found in patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, which boosts the risk of cancer, and in human lung cancers classified as squamous carcinomas.

The telltale variants could help predict how cancer will develop in a patient and also open up pathways for new drugs, according to the study, led by by Kwok-Kin Wong of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.

source : news.yahoo.com