Research explores lung cancer among pediatric cancer patients
Because primary lung adenocarcinoma is exceedingly rare in the pediatric population, it is difficult to properly classify certain lung tumors in children and adolescents. While anecdotal reports of pediatric patients with lung cancer lesions exist, little research has been conducted to link the disease in children to similar pulmonary malignancies in adults. Through an assessment of clinical, tissue-based and molecular data for pediatric lung cancer, research published in the November edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology determined that pulmonary lesions found in young patients with pediatric cancers can be histologically indistinguishable from lung adenocarcinoma seen in adults. Findings indicate that lung adenocarcinomas could occur prior to chemotherapy treatment for a second cancer, and some tumors display gene mutations in EGFR and KRAS this is the first documentation of these mutations in pediatric adenocarcinoma.