Smokers with a Breast Cancer Causing Gene are Likely to Develop Lung Cancer: Study

The presence of a breast cancer causing gene 'BRCA-2' ups the risk of lung cancer in smokers, according to a study.

Earlier studies have linked BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 gene mutations to the development of ovarian and breast cancer. Recently, British researchers found that the risk of for lung cancer is 25 percent more in heavy smokers who have the BRCA-2 gene in their DNA. The study by the Institute of Cancer Research in London examined the DNA of 11,348 lung cancer patients and 15,861 individuals without the disease.

It was observed that defects in BRCA-2 genes known as c.9976T hiked the probability of lung cancer, which was 1.8 times higher than the risk from smoking. These findings suggest a fourth of smokers who carry BRCA-2 are likely to die from lung cancer.

"Smokers in general have nearly a 15 per cent chance of developing lung cancer, far higher than in non-smokers. Our results show that some smokers with BRCA-2 mutations are at an enormous risk of lung cancer - somewhere in the region of 25 per cent over their lifetime," said Richard Houlston, study author and professor from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, reports the Independent.

The authors are unsure if the medications called as PARP inhibitors that help treat life threatening diseases like stroke, myocardial infractions and even breast and ovarian cancer in BRCA carriers can work for lung cancer patients.

According to the data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer. In 2010 alone the disease affected more than 200,000 Americans and about 158,000 succumbed to the disease.  

Time and again health authorities have reminded people to quit smoking and avoid exposure to second hand smoke, traffic pollutants and radon. The current research urges people to follow the same advice.

"We know that the single biggest thing we can do to reduce death rates is to persuade people not to smoke, and our new findings make plain that this is even more critical in people with an underlying genetic risk," Houlston said, reports the Independent.

More information is available online in the journal Nature Genetics.