The majority of cancer-related deaths in the United States and worldwide are attributed to lung cancer. There are more than 90 million smokers in the United States who represent a signif- icant population at elevated risk for lung malignancy. In other epithelial tumors, it has been shown that if neoplastic lesions can be detected and treated at their intraepithelial stage, patient prognos…
Lung cancers exhibit multiple genetic lesions including mutations activating the dominant cellular proto-oncogenes as well as those inactivating the recessive or "tumor suppressor" genes. Candidate tumor suppressor genes include those on chromosomes 1p, 1q, 3p14, 3p21.3, 3p25 (VHL gene), 5q21 (APC/MCC gene cluster), 9p21-22 (interferon gene cluster), 11p, 13q (rb gene), 16p24, and 17p (p53 gene…