What is lung cancer?
Lung cancer accounts for more deaths than any other cancer in both men and women, about 28 percent of all cancer deaths. In 2010, an estimated 222,520 Americans were expected to have been diagnosed with lung cancer and 157,300 were expected to have died from their disease.1 The prognosis for lung cancer is poor – most lung cancer patients are diagnosed with advanced cancer and only 16 percent of patients will survive for five years after their diagnosis. TCGA researchers are studying the most common type of lung cancer called non-small cell lung cancers. Specifically, the subtypes being studied are called lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma. View additional information on lung cancer.
What have The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) researchers learned about lung cancer?
TCGA researchers have:
- Supported previous findings that lung adenocarcinoma has a high rate of mutation compared to other cancers
- Identified activation of a variety of receptor tyrosine kinase pathways, which alters signaling and causes increased cell proliferation, in 76 percent of all examined lung adenocarcinoma cases
- Found eighteen significantly mutated genes including previously known driver mutations in KRAS, EGFR, and BRAF that lead to increased tyrosine kinase activation, and novel oncogenic drivers of lung adenocarcinoma such as NF1, a tumor suppressor gene that normally keeps receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in check
- Mapped three distinct subtypes based on gene expression data
- Proposed changing subtype names to Proximal proliferative, Proximal inflammatory, and Terminal respiratory unit
Where can I find more information about the TCGA Research Network’s studies or studies using TCGA data?
Where can I find clinical trials to treat lung cancers that are supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)?
1American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2010. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society, 2010.