Spring 2001 -- Vol. 18, No. 1

Biological Reason Found for Increased Risk of Lung Cancer Among Women

A gene for a protein that fuels lung-cancer growth is more active in women than in men, according to a report by a University of Pittsburgh-led research team, which also discovered that nicotine found in cigarettes induces gene activity.  Their report, published in the 5 January 2000 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, offers the first biological explanation for the greatly increased risk women face versus men in developing lung cancer.  If substantiated in future studies, this research could provide a valuable marker for predicting which women are most likely to develop the disease or dangerous pre-cancerous changes.

The research team found an increase in the expression of the gene for gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), which is found on the surface of cells lining the lung.  When stimulated by its hormone, gastrin-releasing peptide, GRPR triggers cell proliferation typically seen in lung cancer.  The research team also discovered that nicotine found in cigarettes stimulates expression of the GRPR gene in lung cells.

"Our research strongly suggests that women are likely to develop lung cancer after much less smoking exposure than men and much earlier in life, regardless of their smoking history.  The take-home message, especially for teenage girls, is that they should stop smoking--or better yet, never start," said Sharon Shriver, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study, who is now an instructor of biology at the Penn State University Park Campus.

"Prior reports have suggested various molecular markers associated with an increased risk in women smokers; however, our study is the first to provide a mechanism for cancer promotion in this population," said Jill Siegfried, Ph.D., senior author on the paper, professor of pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh and co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Instituteís Lung Cancer Center.

The scientists looked at normal lung tissue samples from 38 women and 40 men, including 58 patients with lung cancer.  They found that more than half of non-smoking women (55 percent) and 75 percent of women with less than 25 pack-years of smoking expressed GRPR mRNA (a precursor of the GRPR protein).  (A pack-year is one package of 20 cigarettes smoked each day for one year.)  By contrast, none of the male nonsmokers and only 20 percent of men with a 25 pack-year or less smoking history expressed GRPR mRNA.  The difference between the sexes may be related to the location of the GRPR gene on the X chromosome, according to the investigators.  Women have two X chromosomes, whereas men have one copy.  Normally in a woman, genes are inactivated on one of the X chromosomes.  However, both copies of the GRPR gene are active in women.

"Women may be at increased risk because they have two copies of the GRPR gene that are inducible by nicotine, whereas men only have one nicotine-inducible copy.  Another possibility is that one GRPR gene in women is chronically active, even before exposure to nicotine.  In fact, both mechanisms could be at work," remarked Dr. Shriver.

Because they did not measure exposure to passive smoke, the scientists could not distinguish the role that such exposure might play in activating the GRPR gene in women.  Future large-scale studies are addressing this question and others to determine whether GRPR gene expression can provide a reliable marker of lung cancer risk.  This research was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the American Lung Association, and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

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