Parkinson’s Gene Is Linked to Lung Cancer
- By BSTQ Staff
Researchers have identified a Parkinson’s gene that is associated with lung cancer. The researchers, located at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer Consortium, identified the gene using whole exome sequencing, which showed a link between a mutation in PARK2, a gene associated with early-onset Parkinson’s disease, and familial lung cancer. They first sequenced the exomes (protein coding region of the genome) of individuals from a family with multiple cases of lung cancer, and then studied the PARK2 gene in additional families affected by lung cancer. Their findings showed a significant association between the PARK2 mutation and the families with multiple cases of lung cancer.
“These results implicate this specific mutation as a genetic susceptibility factor for lung cancer, and provide an additional rationale for further investigations of this gene and this mutation for evaluation of the possibility of developing targeted therapies against lung cancer in individuals with PARK2 variants,” said Ming You, MD, PhD, the Joseph F. Heil Jr. professor of oncogenesis at MCW and director of the MCW Cancer Center.
