Biomarkers for sub-type specific lung cancer identified

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ENARADA, Bangalore, October 28, 2013:

 More than 25% cancer related deaths are associated with Lung cancer globally. The high mortality is due lack of poor treatment regime and reliable non-invasive or minimal invasive early diagnostic markers. An international team of researchers from India, the UK, Spain, Brazil, and the USA led by Debmalya Barh from the Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB) in Nonakuri, Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India has identified blood based novel diagnostic markers which can be useful in early detecting the lung cancer and even the subtypes such as small cell lung cancers (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

 Using miRNA expression profile and a novel in silico reverse-transcriptomics based integrated bioinformatics approach, the researchers have first identified nine transcription factors (TFs) unique to SCLC, nine TFs common to SCLC and NSCLC, nine TFs common to general, SCLC, and NSCLC, fourteen TFs common to NSCLC and general, four TFs unique to NSCLC, and three TFs common to all types.

 The researchers validated seven NSCLC specific TFs using stage-II and IV NSCLC patients’ tissue microarray and blood samples based qPCR and concluded that “overexpression of HMGA1, E2F6, IRF1, and TFDP1 and downregulation or no expression of SUV39H1, RBL1, and HNRPD in blood is suitable for diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma sub-types of NSCLC”.

 “The novel reverse-transcriptomics-based integrated bioinformatics approach developed in this work can be applicable to identify early biomarkers not only for the lung cancer but can be applicable to other cancers and diseases also” says Debmalya Barh.

 According to Dr. Elena Padin-Iruegas form Medical Oncology Department, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain, who is associated with this research, “we have just tested seven markers out of 48 and they have showed great potential. The other identified markers are under validation and our preliminary results are very satisfactory in early as-well-as sub-type specific detection of lung cancer”.