Lung cancer's nonsmoking gun
Cancer vaccine breakthrough
The daredevil gene
Pancreatic cancer: Understanding a ruthless killer
Cancer and chemical exposure

Meira Epplein, left, and Dr. Stephen Schwartz found a fourfold increase in the incidence of lung cancer for Chinese-American women and a twofold increase for Filipino-American women.

Lung cancer's nonsmoking gun

Study reveals increased lung-cancer risk among Asian-American women; exposure to unrefined cooking oils may be a factor

Women of Chinese and Filipino descent living on the West Coast of the United States have a higher lung-cancer risk than would be expected based on their tobacco use.

These findings from a recent Hutchinson Center study show a fourfold increase in the incidence of lung cancer for Chinese-American women and a twofold increase for Filipino-American women versus non-Hispanic whites of the same age living in the same areas, after taking into account smoking prevalence for each population.

Previous studies have found that Chinese women living in Asia also have a higher incidence of lung cancer than would be expected from their smoking habits. The Hutchinson Center study by Meira Epplein and colleagues extends this finding to Chinese women in the United States.

Dr. John Potter, a co-author of the study, said further research is needed to find the lung-cancer causes in these populations. "Given what we know so far, it is likely that there are carcinogens other than cigarette smoke that are responsible for this pattern of disease risk," he said.

Several environmental factors have been posited to explain the effect in Chinese women living in Asia, including diet, hormones and pollution from coal. The explanation favored by Epplein is prolonged exposure to unrefined cooking oils. "In these studies in Asia where they've looked at why there is excess lung cancer in Chinese women, the most consistent findings have been an association with cooking using unrefined oils such as rapeseed oil," Epplein said.

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Cancer vaccine breakthrough

Headlines around the globe recently proclaimed a new weapon in the war on cancer: a vaccine that may block most cervical cancers. The excitement was certainly justified. It's not every day an annual killer of 290,000 women worldwide is threatened with extinction.

Merck & Co. announced last October that their investigational vaccine, Gardasil, prevented 100 percent of high-grade cervical pre-cancers and noninvasive cervical cancers linked with infection by the human papillomavirus.

The vaccine's roots lie in the Hutchinson Center lab of Dr. Denise Galloway, as well as laboratories in Australia and the National Institutes of Health, where she and fellow investigators accomplished the groundbreaking step of getting a key viral gene to assemble into particles that look like HPV.

A breakthrough discovery Galloway made in 1992 paved the way for the vaccine. She and her colleagues found that they could use one viral gene from the type of HPV that causes plantar warts and get it to form virus-like particles. Two other research groups produced similar results independently. Soon it was possible to make virus-like particles for the cancer-causing types of HPV, which became the basis of the vaccine.

Galloway said she is thrilled about the scientific progress. "To think that in my career — not even my lifetime — we've gone from not knowing what causes cervical cancer to probably having a vaccine that will cure it, that's pretty impressive. There aren't many cancers you can say that about," she said.

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Dr. Jim Olson found that a neurodevelopmental gene controls emotional-memory formation and development of the fear response.

The daredevil gene

One teenager likes to snowboard off a cliff. Another prefers to read a book and wouldn't think of trading places. Why these differences exist is a mystery, but for the first time, Hutchinson Center researchers have identified a possible genetic explanation behind risk-taking behavior.

Dr. James Olson and colleagues have found that a specific gene, neuroD2, is related to the development of the brain's emotional seat. Dubbed "the daredevil gene" by the news media, it also controls emotional-memory formation and development of the fear response, Olson said. His study showed that mice with one copy of the gene had less fear.

"These findings are new to science," said Olson, also an associate professor at the University of Washington. "This is the first time that a specific neurodevelopmental gene has been related to these emotional activities in the brain."

Further research is needed that one day could explain why some people react the way they do to fear, or why they take risks, Olson said.

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Pancreatic cancer: Understanding a ruthless killer

Going toe to toe with a rapid, ruthless killer like pancreatic cancer requires more than business as usual. With a median survival of six months after diagnosis, time is of the essence. Now a joint effort by the Hutchinson Center and Group Health Cooperative is uniquely poised to make progress against pancreatic cancer by being as swift and aggressive as the disease.

The PACIFIC ("Pancreatic Cancer Investigation: Finding Causes") study is comprised of almost 1,500 pancreatic-cancer cases and controls from two health-maintenance organizations with infrastructure to support ultra-rapid case identification within 10 days of diagnosis. Led by Dr. Meg Mandelson, of Group Health and the Hutchinson Center, and Dr. John Potter, of the Hutchinson Center, the study's rapid-recruitment methods might allow researchers to finally understand the full spectrum of the disease.

"Pancreatic cancer is one of the most devastating cancers," Potter said of the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. "Most patients with this cancer die quickly and in pain. In many studies, patients die so early after diagnosis, it is not possible to interview them. We know very little about what causes it, beyond knowing for sure that the risk is higher in smokers. With the PACIFIC study, we will have the best chance to understand causes."

Mandelson said she knows she's waging war on an intractable disease, but that fact only strengthens her zeal for answers. "Compared to other cancers, our understanding of pancreatic cancer is very limited," she said. "By working within these HMO populations, PACIFIC investigators are perfectly poised to gain new insight into effective prevention, detection and treatment of this cancer."

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Cancer and chemical exposure

Hutchinson Center scientists have found additional evidence that environmental exposure to specific chemicals and industrial waste byproducts may be associated with increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

By comparing blood levels of certain organochlorines, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and pesticides in 100 pairs of healthy volunteers and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients, Dr. Anneclaire De Roos and colleagues found that higher levels of three specific molecular forms of PCBs were linked to an increased risk of developing cancer that starts in lymph tissue.

The types of chemicals researched by De Roos — organochlorines — can be harmful because they do not break down easily and stay in the environment and in our bodies for a long time. The study also showed a first-ever correlation between risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and higher blood levels of total dibenzofurans, or furans. Furans and dioxins are byproducts of waste incineration and other industrial processes.

The presence of PCBs in the blood doesn't necessarily mean that these substances cause cancer, De Roos said. "The doses you get from the environment are low, so the relative risks are expected to be low, as well," she said. "It is difficult to prove these associations compared to something you might be exposed to every day in high doses, like medications."

"It might be hard to pinpoint an exact cause, but there are now several studies showing some association between PCBs and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — so the evidence is accumulating."

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