Physical activity and lung cancer among non-smokers: a pilot molecular epidemiological study within EPIC

Abstract

The association between physical activity, potential intermediate biomarkers and lung cancer risk was investigated in a study of 230 cases and 648 controls nested within the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer and Nutrition. Data on white blood cell aromatic-DNA adducts by ³²P-post-labelling and glutathione (GSH) in red blood cells were available from a subset of cases and controls. Compared with the first quartile, the fourth quartile of recreational physical activity was associated with a lower lung cancer risk (odds ratio (OR) 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.35–0.90), higher GSH levels (+1.87 μmol GSH g⁻¹ haemoglobin, p = 0.04) but not with the presence of high levels of adducts (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.38–2.86). Despite being associated with recreational physical activity, in these small-scale pilot analyses GSH levels were not associated with lung cancer risk (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.84–1.07 per unit increase in GSH levels). Household and occupational activity was not associated with lung cancer risk or biomarker levels.

Keywords::

• Physical activity
• lung cancer
• biomarkers
• molecular epidemiology

Acknowledgements

Genetic Susceptibility to Air Pollution and Environmental Tobacco Smoking is a program of the European Community (QL4-1999-000927) Support was provided to Dr. Rundle by a Career Development Award from the National Cancer Center (KO7-CA92348-01A1).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.