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A study of UI Health patients with lung cancer by University of Illinois Cancer Center members and others suggests that survival is influenced by tumor biology and the social and environmental factors patients encounter in their lives, such as food insecurity, lack of health insurance, and proximity to chemical accidents. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

Published in the journal Cancers, the study, “The Association of Social and Biological Factors with Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Lung Cancer and DNA Damage Repair Pathway Mutations: A Single-Institution Experience,” included 232 patients at UI Health, the academic health system of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), which includes the Cancer Center.  The study utilized two Cancer Center Shared Resources: Biostatistics (BSR) and Data Integration (DISR).

UIC researchers, led by corresponding author Frank Weinberg, MD, PhD, a member of the Cancer Center and a physician-scientist who specializes in treating patients with lung cancer at UI Health, explored how genetic mutations in DNA damage repair (DDR) mechanisms and social and environmental factors may impact cancer survival in lung cancer patients.  About 29% of the patients had DDR gene alterations.

“These findings should not be interpreted as causal, but they suggest that tumor genomic patterns may be shaped by a complex interaction of inherited susceptibility, environmental exposures, tobacco exposure, access to early detection, selection for molecular testing, and neighborhood-level conditions,” the authors conclude.  

Other study authors who are Cancer Center members are Mary Pasquinelli, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC; Li Liu, PhD; and Ryan Huu-Tuan Nguyen, DO. Both Pasquinelli and Nguyen practice at UI Health. Cancer Center Senior Research Scientist and DISR co-director Margaret Wright Geise, PhD, is also an author, along with UIC College of Medicine Fellow Ahmad Nanaa, MD, the first author; former resident physician Jeremy Kao, DO, and former medical student Martin Davis, MD.