{"id":61475,"date":"2017-06-14T16:48:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T02:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=61475"},"modified":"2020-03-13T12:16:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T22:16:40","slug":"environmental-carcinogens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/06\/14\/environmental-carcinogens\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some are more susceptible to environmental carcinogens"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vimeo video player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/221653363\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>People carrying mutations of a gene called <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> are much more susceptible to asbestos, sunlight and other environmental carcinogens. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uhcancercenter.org\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Cancer Center<\/a> researchers also found that cancer cells with a <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> gene mutation are resistant to chemotherapy&#8212;about 20 percent of all cancers have <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutations. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/vaop\/ncurrent\/full\/nature22798.html\">The findings by <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> Cancer Center&#8217;s Director of Thoracic Oncology <strong>Michele Carbone<\/strong> and his team were published in <em>Nature<\/em><\/a>. The paper highlights how the <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> gene regulates a channel (IP3R3) inside cells that moves calcium. When the <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> gene is mutated or damaged, calcium levels inside the cells decrease. The decrease of calcium makes cells more likely to become malignant when exposed to environmental carcinogens.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutations make up tumor cells of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>70 percent of mesotheliomas<\/li>\n<li>90 percent of eye melanomas<\/li>\n<li>90 percent of renal cell carcinomas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two ways you can get a <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some people are born with the mutation<\/li>\n<li><abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> gets damaged in the process that the cell becomes cancerous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;We found that cancer cells become much more responsive to chemotherapy when <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> levels are restored and calcium channels are fixed and stabilized. The fixed channel should be able to prevent cancer in people who have inherited <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutations and to help treat cancers whose tumor cells have developed <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutations,&rdquo; said Carbone.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_61479\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61479\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/manoa-cancer-center-carbone-yang-bononi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"337\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/manoa-cancer-center-carbone-yang-bononi.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/manoa-cancer-center-carbone-yang-bononi-260x141.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-61479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Haining Yang,  Michele Carbone and Angela Bononi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> cancer syndrome<\/h2>\n<p>In 2011, Carbone and colleagues discovered the <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> cancer syndrome, uncovering that certain families had a high incidence of cancers including mesothelioma, a cancer generally caused by asbestos.<\/p>\n<p>The new findings explain how and why mutations of <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> increases cancer incidence.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The publication of the findings in <em>Nature<\/em> the premier scientific journal in the world shows the power of collaboration and the fact that we can overcome our geographical isolation making Honolulu the place where scientists from Asia, Europe and the mainland meet to work together to find new ways to fight cancer,&rdquo; said <strong>Haining Yang<\/strong>, co-author and researcher in the <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> Center&#8217;s Cancer Biology Program.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We want to prevent and treat cancer in as many people as possible. We hope to start a clinical trial, within five years or less, to test the susceptibility to chemotherapy in patients with <abbr>BAP1<\/abbr> mutated tumors,&rdquo; said Carbone. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Publishing in <em>Nature<\/em>, is like winning an Oscar for a scientist, very few do so in their career. I came to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> all the way from Italy and I achieved my dreams. I very much hope that our discovery will help save many lives,&rdquo; said <strong>Angela Bononi<\/strong>, co-author and post-doctoral fellow in Carbone&#8217;s lab.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Nana Ohkawa<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> Cancer Center researchers found that people carrying BAP1 gene mutations are more susceptible to asbestos, sunlight and other environmental carcinogens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[218,169,9,56],"class_list":["post-61475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-cancer","tag-uh-cancer-center","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61475"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113520,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61475\/revisions\/113520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}