Doctors have stated that for finding why there us an unusual risk of lung cancer among people who have never smoked, a search through the DNA codes of hundreds of individuals may be needed.

Startling fact is that 10 per cent of all lung cancer patients across the world are those who have never smoked.

About 30 to 40 per cent of people in Asia are ‘never smokers’.

And about two-thirds of the worldwide tally among those who never smoked are women.

Two telltale genetic variants in Chromosome 13 in a study of 754 never smokers, with or without lung cancer, have been found by gene sleuths led by Ping Yang from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Minnesota.

The study stated that there was a 60 per cent increase in lung cancer by having these variants.

A protein called GPC5, which plays a role in cell proliferation, was suppressed by the variants.

Experts have stated that to find out why lung cancer was developed in ‘never smokers’ also, more research was needed.