Their new study, published today in Science Advances, links tobacco smoking to harmful changes in DNA called 'stop-gain mutations' that tell the body to stop making certain proteins before they are fully formed.
"Our study showed that smoking is associated with changes to DNA that disrupt the formation of tumor suppressors," says Nina Adler, a University of Toronto PhD student who led the study during her postgraduate research in Dr. Jüri Reimand's lab at OICR. "Without them, abnormal cells are allowed to keep growing unchecked by the cell's defenses and cancer can develop more easily.
The researchers then looked at whether how much someone smoked had an impact. Sure enough, their analysis showed that more smoking led to more of these harmful mutations, which can ultimately make cancer more complex and harder to treat. As for smoking, Adler says the findings from this study are an important piece of the puzzle behind a leading cause cancer in the world.
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