Somatic genetic changes in lung cancer and precancerous lesions

Background: Morphological abnormalities of the bronchial epithelium are associated with lung cancer development and are considered likely to represent the preneoplastic stage of the disease. The association of these lesions with different histological types of lung cancer was reviewed in a series of 97 samples. Lesions associated with squamous cell carcinomas provided the best samples for further study. The objective of this study was to describe the somatic genetic changes which occur in these preinvasive lesions. Among the various candidate somatic genetic changes, loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 3 and changes to the p53 gene were selected as being the most informative. It was demonstrated that these genetic changes, characteristic of fully invasive lung tumours, also occur at the premalignant stage of the disease. In an attempt to take a less directed approach to the comparison of invasive and preinvasive lesions, karyotype analysis was performed on short-term cultures of bronchial cells adjacent to the bronchial margin obtained from patients undergoing lung tumour resection. One such karyotype had a deletion to chromosome 3 (del 3p13-14) as the single abnormality. Conclusion: It was concluded that genetic damage to p53 and chromosome 3 is involved in the preinvasive stage of lung cancer, and that damage to chromosome 3 is a particularly early event.