Cancer Research UK funded 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.
Current or former smokers who carry one copy of each genetic variant increase their risk of lung cancer by 28%. Current or former smokers with two copies of each variant increase their risk by 80%. People who carry these variants, but have never smoked, are not at increased risk of the disease.
Prof. 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.”
