Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Washington University in St. Louis said they discovered the tumor suppressor gene LIMD1 is responsible for protecting the body -- a finding that could lead to new lung cancer treatments and screening techniques.

Lead researcher Tyson Sharp and his University of Nottingham team, together with Dr Greg Longmore, a professor of molecular cell biology at Washington University, set out to examine if loss of the LIMD1 gene correlated with lung cancer development.

Examining human lung cancer tissue and comparing it to healthy lung tissue they found the LIMD1 gene was missing in the majority of lung cancer samples, indicating that the presence of the LIMD1 gene protects the body against lung cancer.

"We are now going to extend these finding by developing LIMD1 as a novel prognostic tool for detection of early stage lung cancer," Sharp said.

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.