Lung cancer in non-smokers: discovery of a genetic predisposition

Genetic variations may significantly contribute to increasing the risk of developing lung cancer among never-smokers, according to a study published Monday online in the journal The Lancet Oncology.

Smoking remains the leading cause of lung cancer, smokers have a risk fifteen to twenty times higher in developing this type of cancer compared to non smokers.

However, 15% of men and 53% of women who develop lung cancer have never smoked (less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime). That is to say that a quarter of lung cancer cases worldwide occur among non-smokers.

A known risk factors among non-smokers is passive smoking (the smoke of smokers). Recently, several genomic studies have identified genetic variations that may have a moderate effect on the risk of lung cancer. But so far none had been performed only on a population of non-smokers.

Ping Yang (Mayo Clinic of Medicine, Rochester, USA) and an international team of researchers conducted a four-phase study to try to identify genetic variations responsible for an increased risk of lung cancer among non-smoking people.

They identified two variations on chromosome 13 which increased by nearly 60% among non-smokers the risk of developing cancer of the lung.

According to the researchers, these genetic variants alter gene expression GPC5, thus contributing to the development of lung cancer among non-smokers. Further studies are needed to determine the functional role of gene GPC5, they said.

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