Singaporean study links genetic diversity of tumours with resistance to treatment in Asian lung cancer patients
Researchers say lung tumours Asian patients are surprisingly more complex than initially thought
By Cynthia Choo
Researchers’ findings could pave the way for more precise and tailored treatments for lung cancer patients, as a new study in Singapore found that the genetic diversity of lung cancer tumours among Asian patients affects their response to treatment.
According to a study by scientists from A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and medical oncologists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), lung cancer tumours in Asian patients contain much higher genetic diversity than previously expected.
“This results in a higher chance of them developing resistance to targeted cancer treatments such as drugs targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a key driver gene of lung cancer,” said Dr Zhai Weiwei, a senior research scientist at GIS.
The two teams from GIS and NCCS studied 16 patients over a period of more than three years, with genetic information of tumours from about 35 more patients to be added in the continuation of the study.
About 80 per cent of those studied were Singaporean, and most were female, said Dr Tan Eng Huat, one of the authors of the study, and a senior consultant at the division of medical oncology at the NCCS.
Many of the study subjects were in their 50s and 60s, said the researchers. The youngest patient was 56-years-old, and the oldest was 77.