MONDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Genomic data suggest that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer of B cells 1 (NFKB1) is associated with lung cancer, with the cytosine-thymine (CT)/TT genotype linked to reduced risk, according to a study published online Oct. 8 in Cancer.

Meredith S. Shiels, Ph.D., M.H.S., from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Md., and colleagues genotyped 1,429 SNPs in innate immunity and inflammation pathways in 378 patients with lung cancer and 450 controls from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. For SNPs that reached statistical significance, results were replicated in the lung cancer genome-wide association study (GWAS).

The researchers identified significant associations with lung cancer for 81 SNPs located in 44 genes in the PLCO analysis. For 10 of these SNPs there was evidence for confirmation in the GWAS. After adjustment for multiple comparisons, only rs4648127 in NFKB1 retained a significant association with lung cancer. In the PLCO and GWAS studies, the CT/TT genotype of NFKB1 correlated with a significantly reduced risk of lung cancer (odds ratio, 0.56 and 0.79, respectively).

"In conclusion, our study supports the role of genetic variation in innate immunity in the development of lung cancer," the authors write. "These findings add to the growing body of literature implicating inflammation and immunity in lung cancer etiology."

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