Human Papillomavirus and Lung Cancer
Abstract
Virus-caused cancer is one of the leading causes of death in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Lung cancer is the only cancer type among the major AIDS-associated cancers whose viral causes have not been established. Lung cancer risk is significantly higher in the human immunodeficiency virus positive (HIV+) population, even after adjusting for smoking. Approximately 12% of all human cancers are associated with seven cancer-causing viruses. Many of these cancers are HIV-associated. High-throughput sequencing of tumor genomes has shown that four of the seven cancer-causing viruses exhibit clonal integration patterns (identical viral integrations shared by most or all cells). The clonal integration pattern appears to be the unique feature largely shared by cancer-causing viruses that can be captured by high-throughput sequencing of tumor genomes. We have recently developed a novel bioinformatics approach for identifying viral integrations using whole-genome sequencing data. By performing a viral integration analysis using a pilot whole-genome sequencing dataset from HIV+ lung cancer samples, we have observed clonal integrations of high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs). In this Concept Award project, we aim to sequence the genomes and transcriptomes of HIV+ lung cancer samples and then use our state-of-the-art analytic approach to identify viral integrations and virus-associated genetic and immunological features. We anticipate that our analyses will identify integrations of HPVs and potentially other viruses in a subset of the analyzed patient samples. We also anticipate significant differences in clinical and molecular features between virus positive and virus negative samples. Identification of tumor-associated infectious agents may have positive impacts on cancer epidemiology and patient survival and will eventually benefit both military personnel and the general public.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2010610
Entities
People
- Dawei Li
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Vermont