ASPO Abstracts

Environmental Tobacco Smoking (ETS), Genetic Susceptibility and Lung Cancer in a Chinese Population

Authors: Zhou JY, Fang F, Jin ZY, Kim CH, Zhang M, Mu L, Wu M, Zhao JK, Zhang ZF

Category: Molecular Epidemiology & Environment
Conference Year: 2023

Abstract Body:
Purpose. Environmental tobacco smoking (ETS) has been considered a risk factor for lung cancer. However, few studies have evaluated potential interactions between ETS and genetic susceptibility on the risk of lung cancer in the Chinese population. We conducted this study to evaluate the main effects and interactions. Methods. A population-based case-control study was conducted in Jiangsu Province of China from 2003 to 2010 with 2,778 incident lung cancer cases and 7,824 population controls. Epidemiology data were obtained by face-to-face interview and genetic susceptibility markers were assayed by Fluidigm (South San Francisco) and SNPlex (Applied Biosystems; Foster City, CA) platforms. Unconditional logistic regression was employed to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results. ETS was associated with lung cancer with ORs of 1.32 (1.17-1.48), 1.82 (1.56-2.12), and 1.54 (1.40-1.69) for ever-smokers, non-smokers and both smokers and non-smokers, respectively. Among 55 SNPs selected, 7 SNPs were associated with lung cancer among ever-smokers and 4 SNPs were associated with lung cancer among never-smokers. When evaluate potential interactions between ETS among non-smokers, 8 SNPs had potential interactions with ETS (GEMIN4, AXIN1, PLCE1, TERT, THBS1, H1FIA, Mia146A and HLA-DQB1). Among 4 SNPs SNPs identified among non-smokers, GEMIN4 (RS7813) was associated with both lung cancer susceptibility [OR=1.41 (1.00-1.97)] and potential interactions with ETS [ratio of odds ratio (ROR)=0.60 (0.36-0.98)]. Conclusions. In this study with higher prevalence of ETS (43.5% among non-smoking lung cancer cases, and 28.6% among non-smoking population controls), we have discovered a stronger association between ETS and lung cancer in Chinese population, comparing with what have been reported in literature. Our results indicate reducing ETS in addition to tobacco cessation is a critical prevention measure for lung cancer. We have also identified potential interactions between ETS and genetic susceptibility with lung cancer among non-smokers.

Keywords: Environmental tobacco smoking Genetic susceptibility Lung cancer