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Some smokers have a 72 per cent chance of getting deadly lung disease

Major study finds genes that significantly increase the chance of getting a chronic lung disease such as bronchitis or emphysema

Ian Johnston
Science Correspondent
Monday 06 February 2017 17:04 GMT
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Some smokers have a 72 per cent chance of getting deadly lung disease

Some smokers have a 72 per cent chance of getting a deadly lung disease that is one of the world’s leading causes of death, new research has found.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as bronchitis or emphysema, is mainly caused by smoking, air pollution and exposure to dust and chemicals at work.

The World Health Organisation has predicted it will become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.

The researchers studied 24 million genetic differences in people to discover those who are at greater risk, they reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The most susceptible were about 3.7 times more likely to suffer from it at some point in their life, they found.

For every 100 people with this genetic make-up who also smoked, 72 would develop COPD, according to the study, which involved more than 100 scientists and 350,000 people from 13 different countries.

Professor Ian Hall, of Nottingham University, who took part in the study, said: “Given how common COPD is, we know surprisingly little about the reasons why one individual develops the condition whilst another does not.

“The study of genetic variation between individuals provides a powerful way to understand these mechanisms which underlie disease risk, which in turn will provide a stimulus for drug development.”

And fellow researcher Professor Martin Tobin, of Leicester University, added: “As a result of this work, we can now better predict who will develop COPD – opening up the possibility of using this information in prevention, such as for targeting smoking cessation services.”

About 900,000 people in the UK have COPD

The researchers found that COPD could be reduced in about half of the people with a high genetic risk of the disease if they stopped smoking in early adulthood.

About 900,000 people in the UK have COPD, costing the NHS more than £800m a year and the overall economy some £3.8bn in lost productivity.

Ian Jarrold, of the British Lung Foundation, said: “COPD has a devastating effect on the lives of people who live with it, and on their loved ones and carers.

“Understanding how COPD develops and progresses is key to the discovery of new effective treatments and for using existing treatments more effectively.

“This work represents an important step towards this, and may also lead to better prevention, earlier diagnosis and earlier treatment of COPD.”

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