Laura Torrens

Scientists unlock secret behind how smoking and drinking alcohol causes cancer Scientists have revealed exactly how tobacco smoke damages DNA to drive the development of different types of head and neck cancer, a finding that could unlock new treatments and prevention strategies...

The #CancerGrandChallenges Mutographs team reveals how tobacco smoke damages DNA to drive different types of head and neck cancer 🧬

They also show that smoking combined with drinking alcohol can more than double the damaging effect on DNA ⤵️

www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/sc...

7/ Last but not least, a huge thanks to our fantastic team & collaborators from IARC-WHO, @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, @ucsandiego.bsky.social
and many more who made this work possible! 💡🔬 Also to @cancergrand.bsky.social for fantastic support, as well as to the patients and their families ♥️

6/ These findings deepen our understanding of how tobacco & alcohol contribute to HNC, reinforcing the urgent need for prevention efforts to reduce these exposures globally. 🚭

5/ And there’s more: cases exposed to both tobacco & alcohol had more alcohol-related mutations than alcohol-only cases, suggesting a combined effect. 🍷➕🚬🟰🙅‍♀️

4/ We also found that tobacco-induced mutations vary by anatomical site in the head & neck, suggesting that tissue-specific factors modulate mutagenesis.

3/ Our findings confirm tobacco as the main mutagen in HNC, but with a twist: we identified six distinct tobacco-related mutational signatures, which could be caused by different carcinogens in cigarette smoke. 🚬

2/ To tackle this, we analyzed whole-genome data from 265 HNC cases across 8 countries in Europe & South America—offering an unprecedented geographical representation of cases.

1/ At least 1 in 2 cancers is linked to modifiable risk factors. Identifying these exposures and understanding their effects is key to prevention, but challenging due to global differences in lifestyles & environments. 🌍

The complexity of tobacco smoke-induced mutagenesis in head and neck cancer Nature Genetics - Whole-genome sequencing and mutational signature analysis of 265 head and neck cancer samples collected from eight different countries provide insight into the vital contribution...

Hello world! Kicking off my first post with some exciting news 📣 Our study on tobacco smoke-induced mutagenesis in head & neck cancer (HNC) is out today in
@naturegenet.bsky.social! rdcu.be/efNiH 🧬🔥
We uncover the multiple ways tobacco and alcohol drive HNC development. A short thread 🧵⬇️