Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Lung Cancer: New Molecular Insights

Abstract

Both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer are major causes of death worldwide. In most cases this reflects cigarette smoke exposure which is able to induce an inflammatory response in the airways of smokers. Indeed, COPD is characterized by lower airway inflammation, and importantly, the presence of COPD is by far the greatest risk factor for lung cancer amongst smokers. Cigarette smoke induces the release of many inflammatory mediators and growth factors including TGF-β, EGFR, IL-1, IL-8 and G-CSF through oxidative stress pathways and this inflammation may persist for decades after smoking cessation. Mucus production is also increased by these inflammatory mediators, further linking airway inflammation to an important mechanism of lung cancer. A greater understanding of the molecular and cellular pathobiology that distinguishes smokers with lung cancer from smokers with and without COPD is needed to unravel the complex molecular interactions between COPD and lung cancer. By understanding the common signalling pathways involved in COPD and lung cancer the hope is that treatments will be developed that not only treat the underlying disease process in COPD, but also reduce the currently high risk of developing lung cancer in these patients.

Reduced biological effect of e-cigarette aerosol compared to cigarette smoke evaluated in vitro using normalized nicotine dose and RNA-seq-based toxicogenomics

“…Changes in those processes are in good agreement with numerous studies on cigarette smoke toxicity conducted in vitro and in vivo and models of tobacco-related lung diseases including cancer and COPD [32][33][34] . The low p-values obtained for the GO enrichment indicate that the over-represented categories are not due to chance and are based on a substantial number of gene hits (Fig.…”

Clinical Value of Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 (eEF2) in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

“…Lung cancers are common malignancies and leading causes of cancer death in the world (Adcock et al, 2011;Hensing et al, 2013). Clinical outcome of these cancers still remains unsatisfactory despite recent progress in diagnosis and medical treatments (Hensing et al, 2013;Liang et al, 2013).…”

“…Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the word (Adcock et al, 2011). In 2012, there will be an estimated 226, 000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed in this country and over 160, 000 individuals are expected to die from this disease (Siegel et al, 2012).…”

DNA Damage and Oxidative Stress in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…Such a decrease in basal DNA damage in lymphocytes of patients with breast cancer (lower than in controls) was associated with repair inhibition and possible elimination of highly damaged cells by apoptosis [14]. It is important to point out that an increased apoptosis in COPD patients has been reported, which persists even after smoking cessation [33][34][35]. The reduced repair capacity among cancer patients and their relatives shows that such capacity can be genetically determined [36,37].…”