Lung cancer and non-smokers
The association between tobacco smoke and lung cancer is well-known, but why do some non-smokers get the disease? Ann Schwartz, PhD, of the Karmanos Cancer Institute, will be continuing a nine-year study of lung-cancer patients who are non-smokers and/or acquire lung cancer at an early age to try to determine whether and how genetics is involved. Dr. Schwartz will conduct her research with a new, five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. “Clearly, not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, and non-smokers sometimes get lung cancer, so the premise behind all of this work is that there are individual differences and susceptibilities to tobacco smoke and other lung carcinogens. We’re investigating whether those individual differences might be inherited,” Dr. Schwartz said. “There is preliminary statistical evidence for a major gene for lung cancer susceptibility in the families of early-onset (under age 60), non-smoking, lung cancer cases,” Dr. Schwartz said. In past work, she and her research team reviewed first-degree relatives, which include parents, siblings and children of lung-cancer patients. “Now we will also be looking at grandparents, aunts and uncles, and any grandchildren,” she described. “This grant is going to allow us to increase our sample size and to look at some of the genotypes that code for specific metabolic enzymes to try to determine whether they are important in determining a person’s risk.” Specifically, they will study 612 persons with early-onset lung cancer and their families. “We’re looking for genes that alter one’s risk for developing lung cancer in hopes of better understanding the carcinogenic process. We also want to identify high-risk groups for further studies of intervention or early diagnosis: things that really, besides smoking cessation, aren’t available for lung-cancer cases.” |
