For generations, lung cancer has been understood as a disease shaped by habit and environment — but a newly identified mutation in the EGFR gene is rewriting that story. Researchers have found that this rare inherited variant can elevate lung cancer risk by 62-fold in people who have never smoked, suggesting that for some, the disease is not a consequence of choice but of inheritance. The discovery invites medicine, and society, to reconsider how we assign cause, culpability, and care when illness is written into the genome before a person draws their first breath.
Rare EGFR Mutation Dramatically Increases Lung Cancer Risk in Never-Smokers
Lung cancer patients who never smoked face increased mortality risk without awareness of genetic predisposition factors.