Kim Swarner Kraunz
Kelsey Laboratory
Harvard School of Public Health
My
current research involves examining the relationship between carcinogen
exposure and somatic alteration. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)
and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are both exposure-related diseases.
I have determined how tobacco exposure relates to the mode of inactivation
of the Rb pathway in NSCLC. Methylation of the p16 gene increases as smoking
increases. Using PCR based techniques, I have shown that homozygous deletion
occurs at a higher frequency in non-smokers. Although infrequent and not
statistically significant, p16 mutation only occurs in heavier smokers.
Inactivation of the Rb protein, as determined by immunohistochemistry, occurs
at a higher frequency in light smokers. In addition, I am currently determinging
how methylation relates to tobacco exposure in the bone morphogenetic protein
(BMP) pathway in both NSCLC and HNSCC and in two adjacent punative tumor
suppressors, RassF1A and BLU in HNSCC. Understanding how tobacco exposure
relates to somatic alteration allows us to have a better understanding of
smoking- and non-smoking-related disease.