Nonsmokers account for 10% to 15% of lung cancer cases in Europe and North America, 30% to 40% of cases in Asian countries, and 53% of all cases in women. Up to one third of these patients carry a newly identified susceptibility gene that reduces the expression of GPC5, a glypican gene that is suppressed in adenocarcinomas.

Ping Yang, PhD, and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, report the new cancer risk factor in the April issue of The Lancet Oncology.

Medscape Today, by Janis Kelly, 3/30/2010

Tags: Cancer, Lung Cancer, nonsmokers