Analysis of polygenic risk score interaction with coal use and risk of lung adenocarcinoma among never-smoking women in Asia

Background: Accounting for approximately 1.76 million annual deaths worldwide, lung cancer is a significant global health burden. While smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer, up to 25% of all lung cancer patients worldwide are never smokers. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in China, where most women do not smoke, making women in Asia an ideal population to study. Previously conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of lung cancer risk among never-smoking women in Asia identified 10 lung cancer susceptibility loci. Indoor air pollution from coal burned for home cooking and heating is known to contain lung carcinogens and has been found to be causally associated with lung cancer. In the current analysis, we evaluated gene-environment interaction between a polygenic risk score (PRS) and coal use in relation to lung adenocarcinoma.Methods: Three studies …