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Genomic Approaches to Lung Cancer

Authors' Affiliations: ¹ Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; ² Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; and ³ The Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Requests for reprints: Matthew Meyerson, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, M446 Boston, MA 02115. Phone: 617-632-4768; Fax: 617-632-7880; E-mail: matthew_meyerson{at}dfci.harvard.edu.

The last decade has seen remarkable success in clinical targeting of activated oncogenes in cancer. We have applied gene expression profiling, high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays, and systematic resequencing of genes to identify novel oncogenes and signaling pathways in lung cancer that might represent therapeutic targets. Systematic resequencing of tyrosine kinase genes has led to the discovery of somatic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene in lung adenocarcinomas. These mutations range in frequency from 10% in Caucasian to 40% in East Asian patients. Lung cancer–derived EGFR mutations are oncogenic and are tightly associated with clinical response to the EGFR kinase inhibitors erlotinib and gefitinib. Furthermore, gene expression profiling has been shown to classify patients according to their clinical outcome, indicating that the application of this technique may help in guiding patient selection for therapy in the future. Finally, genome-wide analyses of copy number gains and losses were successfully applied to detect gene amplifications and deletions. Taken together, the application of genomics technologies has led to important discoveries with clinical implications in lung cancer that might help to improve clinical care for patients suffering from this highly fatal tumor.