All of these findings are consistent with loss of Fhit protein expression being as frequent an abnormality in lung cancer pathogenesis as are p53 and p16 protein abnormalities and that such loss occurs independently of the commitment to the metastatic state and of most other molecular abnormalities.
Bronchoscopically obtained lung biopsies from 30 cases of histologically proven carcinoma of the lung in stage III were assessed for the alterations in the FHIT gene.
Detecting FHIT deletions for lung cancer diagnosis produced 58% sensitivity in the enriched sputum, whereas there was 42% sensitivity in the unenriched samples (P = .02).
Expression of these genes was evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction in 55 primary lung cancer samples characterized for FHIT and p53 expression by immunehistochemistry.
Fifty-four (73%) of the 74 lesions of metaplasias and bronchiolar epithelia obtained from the IPF patients with lung carcinoma and 8 (17%) of the 46 samples obtained from the IPF patients without lung carcinoma showed LOH at the FHIT gene (P < 0.0001).
Furthermore, abnormal cells were found in 76% sputum by detecting combined HYAL2 and FHIT deletions whereas in 47% sputum by cytology, of the cancer cases, implying that detecting the combination of HYAL2 and FHIT deletions had higher sensitivity than that of sputum cytology for lung cancer diagnosis.
In this report, we describe an improved extruded DOTAP:cholesterol (DOTAP:Chol) cationic liposome that efficiently delivers therapeutic tumor suppressor genes p53 and FHIT, which are frequently altered in lung cancer, to localized human primary lung cancers and to experimental disseminated metastases.
LOH of the FHIT locus was frequently found among the lesions of hyperplasia and atypical hyperplasia obtained from 6 patients with a 1- to 36-year history of PT (12 of 30 informative lesions, 40%); none of 70 hyperplastic lesions obtained from 14 patients with a 1- to 11-month history of PT showed LOH at the FHIT gene; 17 of 20 (85%) cancer lesions obtained from 20 lung cancer patients with a 2- to 53-year history of previous PT showed LOH at the FHIT gene, which was significantly higher than hyperplasia and atypical hyperplasia obtained from patients with a 1- to 36-year history of PT in FHIT LOH (Fisher's exact test p = 0.003).
Normal FHIT transcripts in renal cell cancer- and lung cancer-derived cell lines, including a cell line with a homozygous deletion in the FRA3B region.
Our findings support the conclusion that FHIT/FRA3B abnormalities are associated with lung cancer pathogenesis but that FHIT abnormalities differ from the types of mutations and lack of wild-type transcript found in classic tumor suppressor genes, and functional studies are needed to define the role of FHIT in thoracic tumorigenesis.
The aim of this study was to identify FHIT gene alterations in bronchoscopy specimens of patients with suspected lung cancer and to determine the molecular relevance, if any, of FHIT alterations in the development of cancer.
The coincidence of a chromosomal fragile site, FRA3B, at a common chromosomal breakpoint in lung cancer has suggested that fragility at this site may predispose to breakage that could contribute to multistep carcinogenesis.