| Lung cancer
is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality
for men and women in the United States, accounting
for 28% of all cancer deaths in 2004. Non-small
cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common histologic
type of lung cancer. A detailed knowledge of the
spectrum of mutations driving NSCLC is crucial
for the development of rational based therapeutics
and diagnostics. However, NSCLC cells are notoriously
aneuploid and showed extensive genomic instability
resulting in numerous recurrent cytogenetic aberrations
that are thought to play important roles in tumorigenesis.
Molecular analyses of lung adenocarcinoma have
begun to identify a small number of well-known
lesions such as activated oncogenes (K-ras, c-myc
and c-erbB2/neu) and tumor suppressor genes (p53,
p16 and Rb). Based on the numerous recurrent alterations
observed by conventional low-resolution cytogenetic
analyses, we believe that NSCLC cells harbor many
additional, undiscovered lung cancer-relevant
lesions. The comprehensive high-resolution genome-wide
search for recurrent regional alterations, and
ultimately, the identification of the targets
of such alterations will have an enormous impact
on our ability to understand the process of lung
tumorigenesis, to generate preclinical models,
and to develop sensitive diagnostics and effective
therapies. To discover these lung cancer genes,
we propose to perform a systemic genome-wide analysis
for small recurrent regional loss and gains that
would identify loci harboring candidate lung cancer
relevant genes in 30 human NSCLC cells lines and
70 primary human NSCLC using the high density
oligonucleotide array comparative genomic hybridization
(CGH) platform. After a highly selective bioinformatic
filtering process, a limited selection of candidate
lung cancer relevant genes will be assayed for
their cancer–relevant activities in vitro
in a series of cell-based assays.
|