THE Alliance for Lung Ambitionan international initiative promoted by AstraZenecarewarded a project of investigation led by specialists in Navarre University Clinic Cancer Center (CCUN) which aims to identify genetic biomarkers to explain why some smokers never develop lung cancereven at an advanced age, while others develop it at an early age.
THE financial endowment —180,000 euros— will make it possible to study a larger population, including people suffering from different types of this disease, and to analyze the results through genetic techniques, bioinformatics and of artificial intelligence (AI) latest generation.
According to Dr. José Luis Pérez Graciaspecialist in the field of Lung cancer of CCUN and principal investigator of this project, “we know that there are people more likely than others to suffer from the carcinogenic effects of tobacco. Our objective is to characterize the genetic profiles associated with these extreme phenotypeswhich are very relevant from a clinical point of view.
The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Genomic Medicine Unit of the Clinic of the University of Navarraled by Dr. Ana Patino and with CIMA laboratory diagnosis.
Analysis bioinformatician and of AI will be carried out by the Bioinformatics platform of the CIMA University of Navarra and the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Tecnun-School of Engineering.
To do this, the whole exome of the germline DNA of 500 patients with extreme phenotypes very high and low risk of developing tobacco-associated lung cancer.
This technique allows an exhaustive analysis of all coding regions of DNA, where most mutation which may affect the operation of proteins and who participate in the development of diseases. “Improving the identification of people at high risk of developing lung cancer can increase the effectiveness of screening programs.” prevention And early diagnosis and establish new preventive objectivesdiagnosis and therapeutic“, says Dr. Pérez Gracia.
The first results of the project were published in the journal eBioMedicineof the group The Lancet and presented in the American Society of Medical Oncology (ASCO) Congress.
The study confirmed that heavy smokers (more than 20 cigarettes per day) develop lung cancer at an early age or do not develop it at an older age (extremely high and low risk phenotypes) show different genetic profileswhich may be useful in identifying high-risk patients and defining new therapeutic strategies.
DNA samples will be obtained using International Lung Cancer Consortiuma group dependent on World Health Organization of which the CCUN is a part. AstraZeneca underlined “the scientific and technical solidity of the project, its applicability and the expected impact” during the awards ceremony.
