Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Survey of Patients with Lung Cancer Who Never Smoked Cigarettes

Are you a non-smoker with lung cancer?
Please help us understand the cause.

Full Title: Survey and Blood Sample Collection For Patients With Lung Cancer Who Never Smoked Cigarettes [Protocol THO 0938]

Purpose : Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the US and worldwide. Most patients who develop lung cancer have a history of smoking cigarettes. However, about 1 in 10 lung cancer patients has no history of direct tobacco exposure. Most of these patients are women and have a subtype of lung cancer with adenocarcinoma histology. These "never smokers" may possibly have genes that predispose them to lung cancer, but no such genes have yet been identified.

The purpose of this study is to determine if collecting information and blood from a group of people who never smoked but who have lung cancer is possible across the US.

Researchers will collect information on each patient's diagnosis and treatments. If the collection is successful, blood samples will be used for so-called "whole genome association studies" to look for differences between the genomes of never smokers with and without lung cancer. This may help to identify new genes, which may explain and predict why certain patients develop lung cancer without having smoked tobacco. This is a first step to establish strategies to prevent lung cancer or find people who are at high risk for this disease.

Principal Investigator: William Pao, M.D., Ph.D.

Eligibility :

To be eligible for this study, patients must meet several criteria, including but not limited to the following:

• be age 18 or older;
• have non-small cell lung cancer;
• be a never smoker, defined as having smoked less than 100 cigarettes over the entire lifetime;
• must reside in the U.S;
• must not have been previously diagnosed with other invasive cancers.

Participation in our research study involves filling out a short online questionnaire and giving a blood sample. Participants can have these tubes of blood drawn when they have routine blood tests performed at a doctor's office or at a local laboratory testing provider. There are no costs involved to participate in this study.

For more information and to see if you are eligible for this study, please use our online survey.

If you would prefer to speak with someone, please contact the Study Coordinator at 615-936-5110 or the Cancer Information Program at 1-800-811-8480. You can also contact us by e-mail at neversmokerswithlungcancer@vanderbilt.edu.

• Take our survey