Re: Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Genetic Susceptibility, and Risk of Lung Cancer in Never-Smoking Women

exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and develop lung cancer are more likely to be deficient in GSTM1 activity (GSTM1 null geno-type) compared with never smokers who had no ETS exposure and developed lung cancer (odds ratio [OR] 4 2.6; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 4 1.1– 6.1). It is further concluded that “For the half of the population of never-smoking women with the GSTM1 null polymor-phism, ETS exposure is responsible for between 42 % and 49 % of the lung can-cer cases.” Yet in an accompanying editorial, Weinberg and Sandler (2) comment: “Clearly, many questions remain, and the reported interaction (1) between GSTM1 and ETS requires confirma-tion. ” They also point out that an OR of 2.6 for the association of ETS exposure with lung cancer in GSTM1 null non-smoking women suggests a relative risk of at least 1.7 for the association of ETS with lung cancer in nonsmoking women, which is inconsistent with generally ac-cepted estimates (3), including the re