Genetic susceptibility to lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is a highly environmental disease, but cancer researchers have long been interested in investigating genetic susceptibility to lung cancer. This paper is a historical review and provides updated perspectives on lung cancer susceptibility research. The recent introduction of easier genotyping methods and the availability of an almost complete human genome database facilitated the association study to thousands of cases and controls for millions of genetic markers. Discoveries in the field of behavior genetics, that is, the genetic aspects of smoking behavior and nicotine addiction, unexpectedly indicated that polymorphisms in the human central nervous system play an important role in eventually leading to lung cancer. These findings were achieved by using comprehensive approaches, such as a genome, transcriptome, or proteome approach, and the studies were often conducted without a hypothesis. Another-omics approach, the "adductome" or "exposome" approach to how life style information can be integrated into the framework of genetic association studies, has recently emerged. These new paradigms will influence the area of lung cancer risk evaluation in genome cohort studies.