Genetic Polymorphism and Their Role in Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related mortality all over the world, partly owing to its late discovery and early progression. Despite the recent advances made in the understanding of molecular basis of the lung cancer, there has not been much improvement in the overall survival of patients. Although smoking is considered to be the major risk factor for lung cancer, less than 15% of lifetime smokers have been found to develop the disease, suggesting there might be inter-individual differences which may contribute to risk modification. Besides, chemical and environmental factors, genetic variations have been implicated in the susceptibility of the disease. One of the most common types of genetic variation is the SNPs. Many of these SNPs have been identified in major pathways involved in development and progression of lung cancer like carcinogen metabolizing and detoxifying pathways, immune response/inflammatory pathways, cell cycle regulatory pathways, etc. The SNPs not only affect the transcription of genes and structure and function of the proteins, but also have a potential role in diagnosis, prognosis, and even treatment selection and overall survival of the patients. In this chapter we will discuss role of some of the commonly studied SNPs involved in the major lung cancer pathways.