Is lung cancer hereditary?

Is lung cancer hereditary?

1. Lung cancer cannot be inherited, because lung cancer is a cancer of the lung epithelial tissue, and cancer cells cannot be passed on to the next generation through genes. However, if someone in your family has lung cancer, your individual risk of developing lung cancer will be higher than that of an average person.

2. Genetic diseases refer to diseases caused by changes in genetic material or controlled by pathogenic genes. Common genetic diseases include chondrodysplasia, intestinal adenomatous polyposis, albinism, etc. Lung cancer is not a genetic disease in nature, because lung cancer is a DNA mutation of the lung epithelial tissue itself, and once formed, cancer cells will not be passed on to the next generation through genes or other means.

3. However, some studies have shown that lung cancer has familial aggregation and genetic susceptibility. The so-called genetic susceptibility means that the next generation carries the tumor gene, and under the influence of the carcinogenic environment, the risk of lung cancer is higher than that of people who do not carry the gene. For example, if a person who carries the lung cancer tumor gene and a person who does not carry the gene smokes at the same time, the former is more likely to develop lung cancer than the latter.

4. It should be emphasized that although lung cancer has a genetic susceptibility, the next generation is not absolutely lung cancer. This is because the incidence of lung cancer is affected by many factors. In addition to genetic susceptibility, acquired environmental bad habits, occupational and environmental exposure are also major factors leading to lung cancer. It is recommended that people with a family history of lung cancer undergo regular targeted lung cancer prevention screening to avoid unknowingly developing cancer.