Mutagen sensitivity as a biological marker of lung cancer risk in African Americans

Cigarette smoking is the major determinant of lung cancer. However, only a fradion of smokers develops lung cancer; genetically determined susceptibility fadors seem to play an important role also. Previous case-control studies have shown that in vitro bleomycin-induced mutagen sensitivity is an independent risk fador for head-and-neck cancers, and preliminary data suggest a similar association with lung cancer. However, these studies were almost exclusively performed on Caucasian populations. To test whether ethnic differences in cancer risk are due to differences in mutagen sensitivity, we are using the in vitro mutagen sensitivity assay to condud a case-control study of mutagen sensitivity and lung cancer risk in low-risk (Mexican-American) and high-risk (African-American) groups. Here we report the results o