REGULATION OF NUCLEAR ONCOGENES EXPRESSED IN LUNG-CANCER CELL-LINES

Lung cancer is a major cause of mortality in the United States and acc ounts for the majority of all cancer deaths in both men acid women, It is hoped that through broadening our understanding of the mechanisms involved in transformation of bronchial epithelial cells we will be ab le to improve methods of diagnosis and treatment of this disease, with the ultimate goal of reducing on lung cancer mortality. A knowledge o f the molecular mechanisms involved in processes such as cell division and differentiation is paramount to this task, because it is known th at aberrant responses to growth factors or cytokines found in the norm al cellular milieu can lead to abnormal cell growth and/or transformat ion. Signals initiated at the cell membrane by tumor promoters, growth factors, or cytokines are transduced from the cell membrane to the nu cleus and are, in part, mediated centrally by transcription factors en coded by nuclear protooncogenes. The transcription factor myc, jun, an d fos have been characterized in both normal and transformed lung epit helial cells through detailed studies using cell lines. In this manusc ript, we review what is known about the expression and regulation of t hese nuclear protooncogenes in normal and malignant epithelial cells o f the lung, and their role in the development of lung cancer. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.