Lung cancer risk

Lung cancer risk

Two genetic variations increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer by up to 60% an international research team reported. The research team has found another gene that raised lung cancer risk and latest finding was relevant for both smokers and non-smokers.

• Paul Brennan, a cancer epidemiologist at the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer said: "We are looking at differences in the DNA that makes you more or less likely to develop lung cancer".
  

Lung cancer's ultimate destiny is death and according to the American Cancer Society 975,000 men and 376,000 women die every year by lung cancer. Researchers discovered a region on the 5th chromosome containing 2 genes TERT and CRR9 where they believe variations can boost the likelihood of lung cancer by as much as 60%. Cancer is caused by defects in DNA each time a cell divides, these telomeres become a little more frayed. When they are too worn out, the cell dies. But when cells become cancerous, they produce telomerase, which can renew the telomeres and lets the cells reproduce out of control, eventually to form a tumor. So implicating the TERT gene in a specific cancer can help lead to a better understanding of how cancer develops and boost the design of new drugs to stop tumors, Brennan added.