Molecular epidemiology of lung cancer and geographic variations with special reference to EGFR mutations

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in many countries. Although recent advances in targeted therapy against driver oncogenes have significantly improved patient outcome, cure of this disease is still exceptional. Although tobacco is a known cause of lung cancer, not all smokers develop lung cancer, and conversely many patients, especially Asian female patients with lung cancer, are lifetime never-smokers. Therefore, efforts to understand the basis for different susceptibilities to lung cancer among individuals with different genetic, biologic, ethnic, and social backgrounds are important to help develop effective preventive measures. Lung cancer in never-smokers has many different characteristics to lung cancer in smokers, such as adenocarcinoma predominance and high frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation yet low number of genetic changes. Epidemiologic studies suggest that East Asians are more susceptible to smoking-unrelated lung cancer but less susceptible to smoking-related lung cancer compared with Caucasians. Mutations in the EGFR gene are more common in Asian females and never-smokers. Our case-control study suggests that EGFR mutation occurs independent of smoking, and that the apparent low frequency of EGFR mutations in smokers may be the result of dilution by smoking-related lung cancer. The frequencies of three EGFR gene polymorphisms associated with increased protein expression are significantly different between East Asians and Caucasians, favoring lower protein expression in East Asians. Although these may be associated with preferred expression of the EGFR mutant allele, it is difficult to explain the frequent EGFR mutation in Asian patients. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) revealed several loci related to lung cancer susceptibility. In the future, GWAS may identify loci that are specifically related to EGFR-targeted carcinogenesis, leading to identification of carcinogens that induce EGFR mutations and effective prevention measures.