Clonal hematopoiesis and risk of incident lung cancer

Considering the prominent role of inflammatory elements in the lung microenvironment and emerging evidence for the lung as a niche of hematopoietic progenitor cells, clonal hematopoiesis (CH) may play a role in lung cancer pathogenesis. Two case-control studies, within the UK Biobank and the Mass General Brigham Biobank, found an association of CH with increased risk of incident lung cancer. In MSK-IMPACT, CH with a variant allele frequency ≥ 10% was enriched in pretreatment lung cancer compared with other tumors after adjusting for age, sex, and smoking. The authors conclude that CH is associated with increased risk of lung cancer, independent of known risk factors.