Deciphering the genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic landscapes of pre-invasive lung cancer lesions to determine prognosis III

Rationale: Lung carcinoma-in-situ (CIS) lesions are the pre-malignant precursor to lung squamous cell carcinoma. However, only half progress to invasive cancer in three years, while a third spontaneously regress. Whether modern molecular profiling techniques can identify those preinvasive lesions that will subsequently progress and distinguish them from those that will regress is unknown. We performed gene expression microarrays on CIS lesions, with a view to deriving a molecular signature predictive of future progression to invasive cancer. Progressive and regressive lung CIS lesions were laser-captured and their epigenome interrogated. Results were further validated using publicly available lung cancer data.