Non-Smokers With Lung Cancer Likely to Respond Differently to Treatment

Lung cancer in non-smokers is a distinct disease from that in smokers, and likely responds differently to targeted treatments, according to the findings of a new study published in journal Cell.

In this study, scientists studied a population in Taiwan with high rates of lung cancer among non-smokers. They observed a range of genetic changes which varied depending on a patient’s age or sex. Subsequently, group of researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) worked with colleagues at the Academia Sinica and the National Taiwan University to analyze tumor samples from 103 Taiwanese lung cancer patients from Taiwan – most of whom were non-smokers.

After analyzing the genetics and the related proteins produced by cancer cells in the tumor samples, scientists found that some early-stage lung tumors in non-smokers were biologically like more advanced disease in smokers. They found that tumors in women often had a fault in the well-known lung cancer gene EGFR, whereas in men the most common faults were in the KRAS and APC genes.

The researchers noted these differences could affect the response to targeted drugs in men and women. Picking out people with ‘late-like’ early-stage lung tumors could help guide treatment decisions, and patients could be monitored more closely for signs of their disease progressing. Moreover, the investigators uncovered a pattern of genetic changes involving the APOBEC gene family in three-quarters of tumors of female patients under the age of 60, and in all women without faults in the EGFR gene.

Dr Jyoti Choudhary, Team Leader in Functional Proteomics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said in a press release: “We carried out the most comprehensive study ever conducted into the biology of lung cancers in an East-Asian population with a high proportion of non-smokers, and found that their disease is molecularly diverse, and distinct from what we classically see in smokers.

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“We found distinct patterns of genetic faults in non-smokers and between women and men, which suggest that a woman who has never smoked, for example, is likely to respond differently to treatment than a male smoker.

“Some early-stage lung tumors had molecular features that are much more like that typically seen in later-stage disease – which could help us more accurately diagnose patients with aggressive disease and inform treatment strategies.”

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Lung cancer in non-smokers likely to respond differently to treatment.
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