Individual and cumulative effects of GWAS susceptibility loci in lung cancer: associations after sub-phenotyping for COPD.

ABSTRACT: Epidemiological studies show that approximately 20-30% of chronic smokers develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) while 10-15% develop lung cancer. COPD pre-exists lung cancer in 50-90% of cases and has a heritability of 40-77%, much greater than for lung cancer with heritability of 15-25%. These data suggest that smokers susceptible to COPD may also be susceptible to lung cancer. This study examines the association of several overlapping chromosomal loci, recently implicated by GWA studies in COPD, lung function and lung cancer, in (n = 1400) subjects sub-phenotyped for the presence of COPD and matched for smoking exposure. Using this approach we show; the 15q25 locus confers susceptibility to lung cancer and COPD, the 4q31 and 4q22 loci both confer a reduced risk to both COP

SUBMITTER: Young RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3033394 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature