Genetic Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer in Taiwan and Clinical Applications

Lung adenocarcinoma in Chinese females is hypothesized to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors. In this grant proposal, we propose to map the loci of susceptibility genes of female lung adenocarcinoma based on multiplex families recruited in Taiwan. We focus on a unique pathological type of a unique population in order to reduce heterogeneity of the genetic background. Compared with western women, female Chinese population has a high prevalence of lung adenocarcinoma. Our reasoning is that if we focus on a specific sub-type, which has a familial basis, we will increase the probability of identifying genes associated with female lung adenocarcinoma. The primary goal of this study is to identify the genetic and environmental determinants of female lung adenocarcinoma, and study the relationship between gene polymorphisms and clinical manifestation profiling of lung cancer.