By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com
December 22, 2005
A family history of lung cancer may be more significant for blacks than whites. That's the conclusion of some research carried out at Wayne State University.
Detroit researchers found that having a parent, grandparent or sibling with lung cancer before the age of 50 poses a higher risk for blacks than whites.
Researchers tracked more than 7,500 first-degree relatives of 700 people who developed lung cancer at an early age. They compared them with a cancer-free control group.
By age 70, 25 percent of blacks who were smokers and had a close relative with lung cancer developed cancer versus only 17 percent of white.
Blacks with a family history of lung cancer were twice as likely to develop lung cancer as whites, after factoring in other risk factors.
Conclusion: Black smokers may be genetically more likely to develop lung cancer than white smokers.
All smokers should quit. But blacks with a family history of lung cancer should be especially cancer-conscious and be sure to give up smoking.
