In a message dated 97-11-16 15:30:43 EST, sdhughes@psyvax.PSY.UTEXAS.EDU
writes:
<<
By Leslie Lang
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Scientists have moved a step closer to locating a
gene that helps control the growth of lung cancer.
Experiments at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina,
show that fragments taken from human chromosome number 11 slows or halts
the growth of tumors in laboratory mice.
The gene, once pinpointed, may lead to new treatments for lung cancer, the
leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
The Duke researchers, headed by Dr. Gerold Bepler, associate professor of
medicine, say the next step is to find where on that fragment the tumor
suppressor gene or genes are located. The hope is to someday use them to
treat lung cancer by injecting them into the tumor cells of patients.
"We had identified a region on the short arm of chromosome 11 almost three
years ago that is frequently lost -- missing -- in patients with lung
cancer," Bepler says. "Actually, it's lost in approximately three out of
four patients with lung cancer."
Bepler notes other missing chromosome segments have been identified in
cancer patients, but these may not be important to cancer development. He
says the new findings strengthen the belief that the missing segment of
this particular chromosome region, known as LOH11A, carries a gene, or
genes, that inhibit tumor growth.
"We took this missing piece from normal human cells and put it into human
lung cancer cells growing in tissue culture that have this piece missing.
Those cancer cells came from a patient," Bepler explains.
"In the particular lung cancer cell line we were using, when injected into
a mouse, it tends to grow within a week and doubles every two days
roughly," the researcher says. "And when we put this piece of chromosome
into the lung cancer cell line and injected it into mice, then half of the
mice don't grow tumors at all and (in) the other half, it takes much longer
for the tumor to grow, and it grows half as fast."
Tumor growth suppression also was observed in tumor cells grown in tissue
culture. In contrast, when a segment of another chromosome -- chromosome 12
-- was injected into lung tumors, the tumors grew at the usual rate.
"More people in the United States die of lung cancer than of prostate
cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer combined," Bepler says. "It's
really a very important disease in which we haven't yet made much progress
against." SOURCE: Anticancer Research (1997;17)
>>
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: sdhughes@psyvax.PSY.UTEXAS.EDU (Sheila Dhir Hughes)
Sender: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG (LUNG-ONC: The Lung Cancer Online Support
Group)
Reply-to: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG (LUNG-ONC: The Lung Cancer Online
Support Group)
To: LUNG-ONC@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG
Date: 97-11-16 15:30:43 EST
Hi folks,
My mother's onocologist said that he thought that gene therapy was going to
be the way to treat cancer in the future. I've seen a lot of support for
his position. I sometimes wish I had put my mother in a clinical trial for
gene therapy. Anyway, below is an article I thought might be of interest
to some of you.
Best,
Sheila
-----------------
Friday November 14 5:37 PM EST
Gene Controls Growth of Lung Cancer
By Leslie Lang
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Scientists have moved a step closer to locating a
gene that helps control the growth of lung cancer.
Experiments at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina,
show that fragments taken from human chromosome number 11 slows or halts
the growth of tumors in laboratory mice.
The gene, once pinpointed, may lead to new treatments for lung cancer, the
leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
The Duke researchers, headed by Dr. Gerold Bepler, associate professor of
medicine, say the next step is to find where on that fragment the tumor
suppressor gene or genes are located. The hope is to someday use them to
treat lung cancer by injecting them into the tumor cells of patients.
"We had identified a region on the short arm of chromosome 11 almost three
years ago that is frequently lost -- missing -- in patients with lung
cancer," Bepler says. "Actually, it's lost in approximately three out of
four patients with lung cancer."
Bepler notes other missing chromosome segments have been identified in
cancer patients, but these may not be important to cancer development. He
says the new findings strengthen the belief that the missing segment of
this particular chromosome region, known as LOH11A, carries a gene, or
genes, that inhibit tumor growth.
"We took this missing piece from normal human cells and put it into human
lung cancer cells growing in tissue culture that have this piece missing.
Those cancer cells came from a patient," Bepler explains.
"In the particular lung cancer cell line we were using, when injected into
a mouse, it tends to grow within a week and doubles every two days
roughly," the researcher says. "And when we put this piece of chromosome
into the lung cancer cell line and injected it into mice, then half of the
mice don't grow tumors at all and (in) the other half, it takes much longer
for the tumor to grow, and it grows half as fast."
Tumor growth suppression also was observed in tumor cells grown in tissue
culture. In contrast, when a segment of another chromosome -- chromosome 12
-- was injected into lung tumors, the tumors grew at the usual rate.
"More people in the United States die of lung cancer than of prostate
cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer combined," Bepler says. "It's
really a very important disease in which we haven't yet made much progress
against." SOURCE: Anticancer Research (1997;17)
-------------------------------
Sheila Dhir Hughes
sdhughes@psy.utexas.edu
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