by ecancer reporter Janet Fricker

Three genomic regions newly associated with susceptibility to lung cancer have been identified in Asian populations by the Female Lung Cancer Consortium in Asia (FLCCA), reports Nature Genetics.

It is estimated that 25% of lung cancer cases arise in individuals who have never smoked, with lung cancer in never smokers ranking as the seventh most common cause of cancer death worldwide.

Epidemiological studies of lung cancer in never smokers have shown that the incidence of lung cancer is particularly high in Asia, and has been partially attributed to exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, combustion products from indoor heating and cooking fuel, and cooking oil fumes.

To gain insights into the etiology of lung cancer in never-smoking women, Qing Lan and colleagues, from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA, conducted a multistage genome-wide association study on lung cancer including 5,510 women with lung cancer who had never smoked and 4,544 controls who had never smoked drawn from 14 studies across Asia (including mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Sinapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong).

Altogether 13 of the studies were case-control studies, while one was a cohort study.

The study identified three new susceptibility loci at 10q25.2; 6q22.2 and 6p21.32. Furthermore, investigators also confirmed associations with two previously reported regions at 5p15.3 and 3q28 and a recently reported locus at 17q24.3.

“Further work is required to identify the variants that directly account for the underlying association, as well as to study how the genetic variants interact with established environmental risk factors, including environmental tobacco smoke, cooking fumes and fuel use, in never smoking females in Asia,” write the authors.

Reference

Q Lan, C Hsiung, K Matsuo, et al.  Genome-wide association analysis identifies new lung cancer susceptibility loci in never-smoking women in Asia. Nature Genetics. Doi: 10.1038/ng.2456