Apr 04 2008
Genes of smokers add to lung cancer risk
Apr, 4: In an interesting study the researchers have identified the influence of genes in increasing the risk of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers. The study has revealed that the genetic variations will increase the threat of lung cancer in both smokers and former smokers. As part of the study the research teams examined the DNA of thousands of smokers and former smokers all of them were European origin.
The findings of the research were published in the journals Nature Genetics and Nature pointed the variation on chromosome 15 as the main reason. The chromosome is common in the population but those who have smoked are more prone to lung cancer. The researchers found that the specific pattern of gene variation at two point of chromosome 15 were common among people who developed lung cancer than those who remained healthy.
The smokers and the former smokers who acquired two copies variants from each parent, 15 percent of them have experienced the increased risk of about 70-80 percent. In those who have one copy of each variant the risk level were around 28 per cent. The research gains significance as next to breast cancer, lung cancer is the second highest form of cancer that affects the UK. According to a statistics 38,300 new lung cancer cases and 33,000 people dies because of lung cancer each year.
According to Dr Lesley Walker of the charity Cancer Research UK: “Smoking highly increases the risk of lung cancer and it is the main reason for nine out of ten cases of the disease. The research gives a clear indication about the influence of genes in promoting lung cancer.”
While responding on this Professor Chris Amos of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre, who is the lead author of one of the study said: “The tobacco smoke consists of several complex harmful chemicals that cannot be separated and it is hard to understand the mechanism that pave way for lung cancer. The point to be noted is smokers who do not have the variants still stand 10 fold chances of getting affected by lung cancer than the non-smokers whose risk is below 1 percent.”
[…] on this professor Satbir Kaur opined that, “The study eliminated other factors like age, smoking habit and alcohol consumption that were considered as the probable reason for alteration in the […]