Author/Editor		Panov, Sasho Z
Title		Molecular biology of the lung cancer
Translated title		Molekularna biologija pljučnega raka
Type		članek
Source		Radiol Oncol
Vol. and No.		Letnik 39, št. 3
Publication year		2005
Volume		str. 197-210
Language		eng
Abstract		Background. Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases and leading eause of cancer death worldwide. The advances in molecular biology and genetics, including the modern microarray technology and rapid sequencing techniques, have enabled a remarkable progress into elucidating the lung cancer ethiopathogenesis. Numerous studies suggest that more than 20 different genetic and epigenetic alterations are accumulating during the pathogenesis of clinically evident pulmonary cancers as a clonal, multistep process. Thus far, the most investigated alterations are the inactivational mutations and losses of tumour suppressorgenes and the overexpression of growth-promoting oneogenes. More recently, the acquired epigenetic inactivation of tumour suppressor genes by promoter hypermethylation has been recognized. The early clonal genetic abnormalities that occur in preneoplastic bronchial epithelium damaged by smoking or other carcinogenes are being identified. The molecular distinctions between small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as between turnors with different clinical outcomes have been described. These investigations lead to the "hallmarks of lung cancer". Conclusions. It is realistie to expect that the molecular and cell culture-based investigations will lead to diseoveries of new clinical applications with the potential to provide new avenues for early diagnosis, risk assessment, prevention, and most important, new more effective treatment approaches for the lung cancer patients.
Summary		Izhodišča. Pljučni rak je najpogostejše maligno obolenje in tudi glavni vzrok smrti rakavih bolnikov. Neverjeten napredek pri poznavanju etiopatogeneze pri raku pljuč sta doprinesli molekularna biologija in genetika z moderno tehnologijo mikromrež in sekveniranja. Številne raziskave so ugotovile, da je kljub klonalnemu nastanku pljučnega raka potreben večstopenjski proces z več kot 20 različnimi genetskimi ali epigenetskimi spremembami. Do sedaj najpogosteje raziskovana področja so mutacije in druge genetske spremembe na onkogenih in na tumor supresorskih genih. V zadnjem času je vse več raziskav usmerjenih v ugotavljanje pridobljenih okvar na tumor supresorskih genih s hipermetilacijo promotorske regije. Poleg tega sedaj odkrivajo tudi zgodnje klonalne spremembe, ki nastajajo na preneoplastičnem bronhialnem epiteliju kot posledica kajenja ali drugih karcinogenov. Poznanih je že tudi veliko razlik na molekularni ravni med drobnoceličnimi in nedrobnoceličnimi karcinomi, ugotavljajo pa tudi razlike med tumorji z različnim biološkim potekom bolezni. Te raziskave vodijo v temeljitejše poznavanje biologije pljučnega raka. Zaključki. Pričakujemo lahko, da bodo take raziskave doprinesle k boljši diagnostiki pljučnega raka, kot tudi boljšemu ocenjevanju tveganja, zgodnji prevenciji in novim prostopkom učinkovitega zdravljenja bolnikov s pljučnim rakom.
Descriptors		LUNG NEOPLASMS GENES, SUPPRESSOR, TUMOR POINT MUTATION MICROSATELLITE REPEATS SEQUENCE ANALYSIS, DNA PROTEIN-TYROSINE KINASE GENES, ERBB-2 GENES, MYC GENES, RAS TELOMERE TELOMERASE NEOPLASM INVASIVENESS NEOPLASM METASTASIS APOPTOSIS