Lung Cancer Genes Increase Smokers' Risk
02 April 2008 – Scientists have pinpointed an area of the genome containing one or more genes that can put smokers at even more risk of developing lung cancer.
An international team of researchers, jointly led by Professor Richard Houlston, carried out a 'whole genome search' for faulty genes that increase lung cancer risk. Around half the people they investigated were lung cancer patients who had smoked or were smokers (ever smokers), and the other half were ever smokers without lung cancer.
Ever smokers who carry one copy of each of the genetic variant increase their risk of lung cancer by 28 per cent. Ever smokers with two copies of each variant increase their risk by 80 per cent. People who carry these variants, but have never smoked, are not at increased risk of the disease.
Professor Houlston said: "We've found that these genetic variants are strongly associated with lung cancer. Both smokers and non-smokers have a fifty-fifty chance of carrying them but, significantly, they only increase the risk of lung cancer in people who have smoked… Although these results need to be confirmed in larger numbers of people, they suggest that the genes in this region of the genome interact directly with tobacco to cause lung cancer."
