Introduction: To investigate the genomic profiles of patients with lung cancer with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF-LC), mechanism of carcinogenesis, and potential therapeutic targets.
Methods: We analyzed 29 matched, surgically resected, cancerous and noncancerous lung tissues (19 IPF-LC and 10 non-IPF-LC) by whole-exome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis and established a medical-engineering collaboration with the Department of Engineering of the Tokyo University of Science.
Results: In IPF-LC, CADM1 and SPC25 were mutated at a frequency of 47% (9 of 19) and 53% (10 of 19), respectively. Approximately one-third of the IPF-LC cases (7 of 19; 36%) had both mutations. Pathway analysis revealed that these two genes are involved in transforming growth factor-β1 signaling. CADM1 and SPC25 gene mutations decreased the expression of CADM1 and increased that of SPC25 revealing transforming growth factor-β1-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cell proliferation in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, treatment with paclitaxel and DNMT1 inhibitor suppressed SPC25 expression.
Conclusions: CADM1 and SPC25 gene mutations may be novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for IPF-LC.