Smoking and Breast Cancer Gene Linked To Lung Cancer

According to a recent study by the Institute of Cancer Research in London, the breast cancer risk gene when exposed together with a smoking habit, increase the risk of lung cancer development. The study has has tested 27,000 subjects for their research.

This research which was published in a journal found that the BRCA2 gene is likely to double the risks of a person developing lung cancer. Some of the subjects, comprising of both women and men even faced a more significant risk. The Institute suggests that some drugs used in breast cancer treatment might prove to be effective in lung cancer treatment.

Links between determinants of the BRCA2 genes and breast cancer have been well known. Indeed, it was a diagnosis that had led Hollywood star Angelina Jolie to perform a preventive double mastectomy. The gene is also believed to be linked with other forms of cancer affecting women particularly such ovarian cancer and male ailments such as prostate cancer.

The study performed a comparison of the genetic codes of some people with and without lung cancer. Smokers in isolation have a risk of 40 times of developing lung cancer. On the other hand, smokers with a BRCA2 mutation found that risk to be 80 times more likely. A quarter of that population who smokes and has the gene mutation will in time develop lung cancer.

This discovery implies that treatments usually developed for the treatment of breast cancer could now also be tested on lung cancer patients and could constitute a cure.