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| |  Genetic Variant Greatly Increases Lung Cancer Risk for Light Smokers CINCINNATI -- March 10, 2010 -- Individuals with a certain type of genetic susceptibility to lung cancer face a greatly increased risk for the disease with even a small exposure to cigarette smoke, a study team concludes in a paper published online March 9 by Cancer Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research. For individuals who carry this genetic variant, the risk of lung cancer is similar for both light and heavy smokers, say researchers from the Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer Consortium (GELCC), adding that even non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke and have a family history of lung cancer should be monitored for early detection. “The study shows a strong gene-environment interaction between a region of chromosome 6q and smoking,” says Marshall Anderson, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. “People with this susceptibility locus can develop lung cancer even with a very little bit of smoking.” Dr. Anderson is principal investigator of GELCC whose UC portion is known as the Family Lung Cancer Study. To study the chromosome region’s effect on lung cancer risk, the researchers identified a haplotype that was associated with lung cancer. Collecting data from several recruitment sites, they then divided smoking exposures into never smokers; light smokers, defined as fewer than 20 pack years, with a pack year being the equivalent of a pack a day for 20 years; moderate smokers, defined as 20-40 pack years; and heavy smokers, defined as 40 or more pack years. For family members without this genetic lung cancer risk, the risk of developing the disease tracked closely with the level of smoking; in other words, heavy smokers had a significantly greater risk of developing lung cancer than moderate smokers, who had a significantly greater risk than light smokers. But in family members with the genetic risk haplotype, even light smoking resulted in a greatly increased risk for developing lung cancer. From there, increasing smoking behaviours in this group of family members carried only weakly increasing risk for developing lung cancer. “If you carried the inherited risk and then you smoked, it didn’t matter if you were a light smoker or a heavy smoker -- you were significantly more likely to develop lung cancer,” says study co-investigator Susan Pinney, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Adds Dr. Anderson: “If you have a family history of lung cancer, you probably should not even be around cigarette smokers.” The study’s first author is Christopher Amos, PhD, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
SOURCE: University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
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