Lung cancer: Genetic susceptibility

Abstract

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death all over the world. Although it is known that genetic and epigenetic susceptibility factors play a role in determining individual risk of developing lung cancer, the role of genetically determined host factors in occupational exposure-related lung cancer is poorly explored. Gene variants that might affect susceptibility to lung cancer fall into three categories: rare-risk, moderate-risk, and common low-risk variants. Most of the genetic risk for lung cancer is likely to involve several genes of the last two categories. Such risk variants have mostly been tested on a candidate gene basis. However, during recent years genome-wide association studies have provided an alternative for these studies. This chapter presents these nowadays most commonly used approaches and the main results they have produced regarding the studies on genetic susceptibility factors for lung cancer.