Bridging the clinical gaps: genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic biomarkers for the early detection of lung cancer in the post-National Lung Screening Trial era

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide in part due to our inability to identify which smokers are at highest risk and the lack of effective tools to detect the disease at its earliest and potentially curable stage. Recent results from the National Lung Screening Trial have shown that annual screening of high-risk smokers with low-dose helical computed tomography of the chest can reduce lung cancer mortality. However, molecular biomarkers are needed to identify which current and former smokers would benefit most from annual computed tomography scan screening in order to reduce the costs and morbidity associated with this procedure. Additionally, there is an urgent clinical need to develop biomarkers that can distinguish benign from malignant lesions found on computed tomography of the chest given its very high false positive rate. This review highlights recent genetic, transcriptomic and epigenomic biomarkers that are emerging as tools for the early detection of lung cancer both in the diagnostic and screening setting.

Expression of Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-associated Factor 6 in Lung Cancer Tissues

“…With the development of genomic and basic research, increasing numbers of cell molecular biomarkers have been considered as specific diagnosing and targeted therapeutic agents for lung cancer (Uribe and Gonzalez, 2011;Hirose et al, 2012;Brothers et al, 2013;Ramshankar and Krishnamurthy, 2013;Wang et al, 2013). However, clear molecular biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer have not been identified.…”

“…The most abundant amounts of the TRAF1, TRAF2 and TRAF6 protein can be detected in thymus, testis and epidermis, while in other tissues the expression is low or even absent, which reveals a tissue-specific difference of TRAF protein expression in normal human tissues (Zapata et al, 2000). TRAF6 and TRAF2 exhibit high protein expression in 83 human cancer cell lines, such as leukemia/lymphoma, ovarian carcinoma, melanoma, lung cancer, colon carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, breast cancer and renal cell carcinoma cell lines (Zapata et al, 2000), which was associated with TNFa-induced cancer cell migration and invasion (Xiao et al, 2012;Chaudhry et al, 2013).…”

Upregulation and Clinicopathological Significance of Long Non-coding NEAT1 RNA in NSCLC Tissues

“…Despite recent diagnostic and therapeutic advancements, NSCLC is still deemed as the most aggressive malignant tumor with a frustrating 5-year overall survival rate as only 20-30% (Ramshankar and Krishnamurthy, 2013;Rosell and Karachaliou, 2013). Thus, it is urgent to discover potential molecular targets of greater therapeutic values (Brothers et al, 2013).…”

Identifying Epigenetic Endpoints of Pesticide Exposure Can Curtail Risk to Develop Cancer: A Review.

“…Rather epigenetic alterations are more conclusive about cancer development eg. CDKN21 hypermethylation (Brothers et al, 2013).…”