Never-smokers' lung tumours have 'greater genomic instability'

Research has found that lung adenocarcinomas in people who have never smoked cigarettes before have greater genome instability than those who do smoke.

Science news presented at the 14th World Conference on Lung Cancer, which was recently hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in Amsterdam, showed that "several genomic regions" were altered differently in tumour genomes of smokers and never-smokers.

"The discovery that there are different patterns of genetic alterations in smokers and never-smokers suggests that lung cancers in these cohorts are likely distinct diseases driven by different molecular mechanisms, and thus, may require different treatments," said principal investigator Kelsie Thu, a researcher from BC Cancer Agency Research Centre in Vancouver.

Furthermore, it was reported that 25 per cent of lung cancer cases in the world occur in never-smokers, with these people more likely to be female, of Asian descent and have a higher incidence of epidermal growth factor receptor mutations.

Recently, it was reported that lung cancer deaths have been reduced in the US by 20 per cent thanks to using CT scans rather than chest X-rays, according to the National Lung Screening Trial.