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Gene variations predicted lung cancer susceptibility in Asian women
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Three gene variations predispose Asian women who have never smoked to lung cancer, according to results of a genome-wide association study.
Approximately 25% of patients with lung cancer have never smoked. Lung cancer in never-smokers ranks as the seventh most common cause of cancer death worldwide.
Results from previous epidemiological studies have shown that the incidence of lung cancer in women is particularly high in Asia. This can be partially attributed to environmental exposure to tobacco smoke, combustion products and cooking oil fumes, according to background information in the study.
Researchers from the NCI partnered with researchers from other countries to create the Female Lung Cancer Consortium in Asia (FLCCA). The FLCCA includes studies from mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Qing Lan
Qing Lan, MD, PhD, senior investigator in the division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the NCI, and colleagues created the FLCCA to conduct one of the largest genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in female never-smokers.
Lan and colleagues conducted a lung cancer GWAS that combined data from 14 studies. They scanned 5,510 never-smoking female patients with lung cancer and 4,544 controls. Researchers also genotyped variants in an additional 1,099 cases and 2,913 controls.
Lan and colleagues identified three new susceptibility locations at chromosome 10q25.2 (P=3.54 x 10–18), 6q22.2 (P=4.14 x 10–10) and 6p21.32 (P=9.51 x 10–9).
Researchers also reported associations at 5p15.33, 3q28 and 17q24.3.
“It is notable that our strongest finding at 10q25.2 has not been reported previously in lung cancer GWAS,” Lan and colleagues wrote. “This observation suggests that the etiology of lung cancer in never-smokers in Asia may have unique genetic characteristics.”
Researchers did not observe evidence of association for lung cancer at chromosome 15q25 in Asian women who never smoked. Previous GWAS of lung cancer associated chromosome 15 with lung cancer risk.
“This study is an example of how genome-wide association susceptibility studies can evaluate inherited genetic risk in populations with unique characteristics or environmental exposures,” Stephen J. Chanock, MD, acting co-director of the Center for Cancer Genomics at the NCI, said in a press release. “We will continue to develop better, smarter applications of this technique and apply them to populations where we have detailed information on environmental factors to further our understanding of how inherited genetic factors modify risk from environmental exposures.”
Disclosure: Lan and colleagues report no relevant financial disclosures.
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