Smoking, oncogenes and human lung cancer. A review of recent laboratory evidence linking smoking and lung cancer.

Recent molecular genetic experiments conducted in the USA and The Netherlands have isolated specific mutations in human lung cancer cells. These data implicate the activation of the K-ras oncogene in the pathogenesis of adenocarcinoma of the lungs of heavy smokers and the deletion of DNA from the short arm of chromosome 3 in small-cell and non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung. The implications of these results are discussed and explained in the light of current DNA-manipulative technology which is now available in RSA.