Scientists may have discovered why lifelong smokers have never had lung cancer. This may sound silly, especially considering that cigarettes are the number one risk factor for lung cancer. Although tobacco products are 90% of the causes of death, lifelong smokers tend to avoid lung cancer in some way. Now, science may have finally figured out why.
Some smokers have never had lung cancer -- this study may have found the cause
According to the new findings published in Nature Genetics, DNA repair genes may prevent some smokers from getting lung cancer. Researchers have found an inherent advantage in many smokers who have never had lung cancer. They found that the cells lining the lungs were less likely to mutate over time.
Essentially, because some smokers have very active DNA repair genes, they protect the person from forming cancer cells. This is an intriguing discovery, which can ultimately explain why some smokers have never had lung cancer.
The researchers looked at the genetic characteristics of bronchial basal cells in 33 participants. All participants were between 11 and 86 years old. Fourteen participants had never smoked, while the other 19 had a history of mild, moderate and severe smoking.
They then sequenced surface cells collected from the participants' lungs to measure mutations in their genomes.
Doubling mutation
The results showed that these lung cells survived for many years. And these mutations accumulate with age and continued smoking. These are also the most likely lung cells to become cancer, a lung expert at Albert Einstein School of Medicine said in a statement.
But the most interesting thing is that after smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for about 23 years, scientists found that the risk and mutation rate of these cells decreased sharply. Therefore, some lifelong smokers will never get lung cancer because the mutation rate changes dramatically.
This is because their DNA can repair the body before the cells mutate into tumors. Scientists say these DNA repair genes can be inherited or acquired. What makes a person's body better at repairing DNA remains a mystery.
However, according to the results of this study, it may play a big role in the reason that 80-90% of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer.
However, even with this knowledge, the risk associated with smoking is still very high. Geneticists plan to develop new methods to measure a person's ability to repair DNA. This will help us better understand the role of DNA repair in the cause of lifelong smokers who have never had lung cancer. In addition, it can even help us more effectively assess a person's risk of lung cancer.