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Discovered: The Gene That Increases Lung Cancer Risk

Published: 2011-03-17    Views:86 reads

Norwegian researchers have discovered genes that increase the risk of contracting lung cancer and, perhaps, the urge to smoke, according to a Medical News Today story.

Smoking was by far the largest risk factor for developing lung cancer, said Professor Frank Skorpen of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.

But while the risk of contracting lung cancer was relatively small for non-smokers, the genetic factor for lung cancer found by the NTNU researchers was said to nearly double that predisposition.

"This is a common genetic variant," Skorpen was quoted as saying. "Roughly 10 per cent of the population has inherited this variant on both alleles, from mother and father, so there are many people with an increased risk of developing lung cancer."

The researchers are now analysing samples from the population of Norway's Nord-Trøndelag County, taken as part of the HUNT health study and encompassing over 57,000 people.

This is a large, homogenous population that includes smokers, former smokers and non-smokers, and the researchers aim to discover whether people who carry the genetic risk markers for lung cancer tend to smoke more than do those who don't.