Smoking and Genes
If you are a current or former smoker, you are at significantly greater risk than non-smokers for developing lung cancer, in addition to suffering from a range of diseases including heart attack, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and stroke, among many others.
Scientists now understand that much of the difference between those who develop disease and those who do not can be predicted by measuring specific genetic differences between individuals. When it comes to lung cancer, although smoking exposure is the most important causative factor, an estimated 25% of the causative factors for the disease can be attributed to an individual's genetic profile. This means that among those who have smoked for years (at risk due to their smoking), these genetic factors are of considerably greater importance in further defining the risk. Respiragene™ is specifically designed to assess this risk.
Lung cancer is the most lethal of the common cancers, accounting for one in three of all cancer deaths. It kills more people each year in most developed countries around the world than cancers of the breast, colon, prostate and ovary combined. Of patients diagnosed with lung cancer, more than half die within 1 year of diagnosis and 80% die within 2 years of initial diagnosis.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, 10 to 15% of long term smokers will develop lung cancer. About 90% of lung cancers are diagnosed in current and former smokers. About 10% of people who get lung cancer have never smoked, though many of them have been exposed to "passive smoking" - living or working alongside smokers. But among these large groups of people, all exposed to smoke, some are obviously much more susceptible to lung cancer than others. The Respiragene™ test can identify them.