Summary of Key Points A clinically relevant pathologic classification of lung cancer is essential for accurate diagnosis and for patients to receive appropriate therapy. Although classification of the majority of lung cancers is straightforward, areas of controversy and diagnostic challenges…
Summary of Key Points Humoral and cellular immune dysregulation in the tumor microenvironment contributes to immune evasion, a key hallmark of lung cancer. Immunosuppressive mechanisms observed in lung cancer include defective antigen presentation, secretion of immunosuppressive tumor-derived soluble factors, and…
Summary of Key Points The biologic roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in lung cancer indicate their correlation with disease status, prognosis, and therapeutic outcome. The discovery of miRNAs has opened a new avenue for individualized disease diagnosis and treatment. Dysfunctions of…
Summary of Key Points There is untapped potential for targeted lung cancer prevention and therapy that requires, as a first step, a more clear delineation of the biology underlying the lung carcinogenesis process. The pulmonary microenvironment represents a unique milieu…
Summary of Key Points The use of mouse models to study the initiation and evolution of lung cancers has been crucial in advancing the field through the identification of putative stem cell niches within the lung. Bronchoalveolar stem cells (BASCs)…
Summary of Key Points Distinct cellular phenotypes are based on differential gene expression, which is achieved through heritable epigenetic modifications that maintain active and inactive chromosomal regions. Epigenetic mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modifications, regulatory DNA-binding proteins, regulatory RNAs, genome-organizing…
Summary of Key Points Cancer genomes are characterized by the presence of a variety of alterations including base substitutions, copy-number alterations (amplifications or deletions), and structural rearrangements (translocations or chromosomal rearrangements). Among the early methods of DNA sequencing (now known…
Summary of Key Points Lung cancers commonly have structural chromosome aberrations and aneuploidy, with many of them associated with carcinogenesis. Gene amplification is a common mechanism of oncogenic activation in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) involving genes such as MYC…
Summary of Key Points Most chemoprevention research is focused on natural products and is not amenable to traditional pharmaceutical development. Robust research and development for lung cancer chemoprevention by the pharmaceutical industry is largely lacking. The traditional model of developing…
Summary of Key Points This chapter provides a review of some of the most promising recent studies of diagnostic biomarkers in lung cancer. We discuss the challenges and the importance of biomarker validation. Current guidelines recommend a study design to…