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Gauging the Risks From a Smoker’s DNA and History 

To take Synergenz's Respiragene test, consumers swab the inside of a cheek to get DNA and send the sample to a laboratory in Kentucky. The Synergenz Web site says a physician is required to sign a form requesting the test. The Respiragene test looks at 20 spots in a person's genome where DNA varies among people. It uses that data, as well as nongenetic information like the person's smoking history, to compute a risk score.

About 50 percent of smokers will end up in the group that is deemed to have the average risk of lung cancer for smokers, said Dr. Robert Young, Synergenz's chief scientific officer.

Thirty percent will be in the high-risk group, with about four times the average risk for smokers. And 20 percent would be in the very-high-risk group -- those with about 10 times the risk of an average smoker.

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