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Nicotine-Linked Gene Change Raises Risk of Cancer (Update2) 

Genetic changes may determine which smokers get hooked, smoke more than others and are most likely to develop lung cancer, scientists said today.

The variations in genes that control the body's response to nicotine, an addictive chemical in tobacco, raise the risk of lung cancer and blood-vessel disease, according to three studies published today by the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.

Researchers from DeCode Genetics Inc. and laboratories around the world found the risk-linked changes in a stretch of DNA containing genetic instructions for making proteins, called receptors, that respond to nicotine. Determining how the cancer- associated variant differs from lower-risk versions will throw much-needed light on prevention, said Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association.

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