Major study reveals how smoking mutates our DNA

People who smoke a pack of cigarettes each day for a year develop on average 150 extra mutations in every lung cell and nearly 100 more mutations than usual in each cell of the voice box, according to a major investigation into root causes of cancer. At the same time more mutations build up in the mouth, bladder, liver and pancreas (tissues that are not directly exposed to smoke) according to the researchers.

We knew that more than 70 of the 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke raise the risk of at least 17 forms of cancer. The precise molecular mechanisms through which they mutate DNA and give rise to tumours had never been clear.

Researchers analysed the DNA of more than 5,000 cancers. The team then turned to pattern recognition software to tease apart the various mutational signatures found in tumours from smokers versus non-smokers.

The reason why some people can smoke for years without getting cancer, while others develop the disease, is down to the way mutations arise.  “You can really think of it as playing Russian roulette,” said to the Guardian Ludmil Alexandrov, a theoretical biologist at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the first author of the study.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/03/dna-study-lays-bare-devastating-damage-caused-by-smoking?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Image credit: http://bit.ly/2eFVHpW

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