More Proof (if needed!) of the Damage caused by Smoking
If you are thinking of giving up smoking in the New Year then the following article will give you good reason to make 2010 the year you become a non-smoker.
New research shows that smoking causes mutations in healthy cells that will become potentially untreatable cancers.
The following is an extract but to read the story in full go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/16/cancer-genome-sequences-genetic-mutations
"This is a really fundamental moment in the history of cancer research. We have never seen cancer revealed in this way before," said Mike Stratton, a co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge.
The researchers took diseased cells from a 45-year-old man with a type of skin cancer called malignant melanoma, and from a 55-year-old man with small cell lung cancer. They then used advanced genetic sequencing machines to read the full genomes of both the cancer cells and healthy tissues taken from the same patients.
By comparing the genetic makeup of the diseased and healthy cells, the scientists created catalogues of all the mutations found only in the cancerous tissues. Most of these genetic glitches are harmless, but every once in a while a mutation causes major damage that pushes a cell closer to becoming cancerous.
The scientists focused on skin and lung cancer because the environmental causes are well known. Most melanomas are triggered by overexposure to ultraviolet rays in sunlight as a child, while almost all small cell lung cancer is caused by smoking.
In the case of the lung cancer patient, scientists discovered 23,000 mutations that were exclusive to the diseased cells. Almost all were caused by the 60 or so chemicals in cigarette smoke that stick to DNA and deform it. "We can say that one mutation is fixed in the genome for every 15 cigarettes smoked," said Peter Campbell, who led the lung cancer part of the study. "That is frightening because many people smoke a packet a day."
New research shows that smoking causes mutations in healthy cells that will become potentially untreatable cancers.
The following is an extract but to read the story in full go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/16/cancer-genome-sequences-genetic-mutations
"This is a really fundamental moment in the history of cancer research. We have never seen cancer revealed in this way before," said Mike Stratton, a co-leader of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge.
The researchers took diseased cells from a 45-year-old man with a type of skin cancer called malignant melanoma, and from a 55-year-old man with small cell lung cancer. They then used advanced genetic sequencing machines to read the full genomes of both the cancer cells and healthy tissues taken from the same patients.
By comparing the genetic makeup of the diseased and healthy cells, the scientists created catalogues of all the mutations found only in the cancerous tissues. Most of these genetic glitches are harmless, but every once in a while a mutation causes major damage that pushes a cell closer to becoming cancerous.
The scientists focused on skin and lung cancer because the environmental causes are well known. Most melanomas are triggered by overexposure to ultraviolet rays in sunlight as a child, while almost all small cell lung cancer is caused by smoking.
In the case of the lung cancer patient, scientists discovered 23,000 mutations that were exclusive to the diseased cells. Almost all were caused by the 60 or so chemicals in cigarette smoke that stick to DNA and deform it. "We can say that one mutation is fixed in the genome for every 15 cigarettes smoked," said Peter Campbell, who led the lung cancer part of the study. "That is frightening because many people smoke a packet a day."
posted by Rachel at
1:30 pm
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