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From smoking to alcohol, from air pollution to the sun, a multitude of environmental factors can cause cancer. Now scientists say that they could possibly identify the culprits of individual tumors.
Experts say they have been successful in associating particular environmental triggers with genetic mutations that cause cancer, providing researchers with the ability to look for clues in a tumor to infer what triggered its formation.
"Mutual signatures are the fingerprints left by carcinogens on our DNA. Each of them is unique, "said Dr. Serena Nik-Zainal, of the Oncology Unit of the Council of Medical Research of the University of Cambridge, who led the research. "They allow us to treat tumors as a crime scene and, just like forensic scientists, allow us to identify the culprit and his accomplices responsible for the tumor."
Cancers grow as a result of changes in the DNA in the cells. These changes – or mutations – can affect the way cells divide and tissue growth, producing tumors. According to the latest figures, one in two people will develop cancer in their lifetime.
In the journal Cell, British researchers explain how they exposed human stem cells, produced from skin cells, to 79 different chemicals or processes that are thought to cause cancer, including solar radiation, various chemotherapy drugs, and crowd of substances present in tobacco. smoke.
Overall, the team found that 41 of these agents – or 52% of the agents – produced distinct genetic changes that could be detected in cells, with some producing more than one trait. The team then compared these signatures with mutations observed in human cancers.
"We have used this technique to create the most comprehensive catalog to date regarding the types of DNA damage produced by environmental agents on the entire human genome," said the author. Professor David Phillips of King's College London. "This should allow us to examine a patient's tumor and identify some of the carcinogens to which he has been exposed that may have caused cancer."
The team found that the artificial sun produced a set of mutations similar to that observed in UV-associated cancers, while genetic signatures were also observed for various substances found in tobacco smoke, similar to those seen in cancers. lung associated with smoking. . They also found that the genetic modifications produced by the cisplatin and carboplatin chemotherapy drugs were compatible with those seen in myeloid tumors developed in people who had undergone chemotherapy.
Nik-Zainal said, "Our reference library will allow doctors in the future to identify the culprits responsible for cancer. Such information could be very useful in helping to take informed measures to reduce people's exposure to potentially dangerous carcinogens. "
The team said that this approach could also highlight previously unknown causes of cancer, but it also recommended caution, pointing out that this could also suggest exposure to a substance that has not yet been encountered. "It is important to emphasize this because it can have significant legal implications for industries where some of these agents may be occupational exposures," they wrote.
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