Trial Lecture - time and place
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Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Associate Professor Simon Ekman, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
- Second opponent: Senior Consultant Bjørnar Gilje, Stavanger University Hospital
- Third member and chair of the adjudication committee: Professor Kristin Bjordal, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Professor emeritus Stein Olav Kvaløy, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Main supervisor
Professor II Åslaug Helland, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
Lung cancer is a common type of cancer in Norway. Many patients are diagnosed in advanced stages of disease and the long-time prognosis is poor. Research efforts during the last decades have resulted in novel treatment options, but there is still an unmet need to improve diagnosis and to stratify patients to adequate treatment. Further biological characterization of lung cancer can thus represent a valuable contribution.
In the thesis «Serum and tumour biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer» Hanne Astrid Eide and co-workers aimed to study possible biomarkers in tumour tissue and serum samples from patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
In the tumour tissue, analysis revealed a difference in HMGA2 mRNA expression and protein levels in different subtypes of non-small cell cancer. The expression of MYCN, a member of the MYC-family of oncogenes, was seen associated with time to disease recurrence. In patients with locally advanced lung cancer treated with radiotherapy, the PD-L1 protein was found associated with time to recurrence, and further revealed as a possible predictor of local control in the irradiated area.
A majority of lung cancers are caused by smoking. Most smokers however, do not develop lung cancer. When investigating serum from lung cancer patients compared to serum from patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, a difference in cytokine and matrix metalloproteinase levels was revealed. This finding suggests the existence of a cancer-specific footprint in the lung cancer patients. During a course of palliative radiotherapy changes in cytokine levels were also found, concurrent with changes in tumour tissue visualized by FDG-PET.
The results presented in this thesis needs further validation, but provides new insights in the underlying biology of lung cancer.
Additional information
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