A gene that is specifically associated with lung cancer in people who have never smoked, has been identified by scientists.

About 30 percent of patients who never smoked and who developed lung cancer had the same uncommon variant, or allele, residing in a gene known as GPC5, found the research team, co-led by scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Minnesota, Harvard University, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

It was also found by the researchers in laboratory studies that this allele leads to greatly reduced GPC5 expression, compared to normal lung tissue.

It has been suggested by the findings that the gene has an important tumor suppressor-like function and that insufficient function can promote lung cancer development.

The study's lead investigator, Ping Yang, Mayo Clinic genetic epidemiologist, says, "This is the first gene that has been found that is specifically associated with lung cancer in people who have never smoked."

Yang further added, "What's more, our findings suggest GPC5 may be a critical gene in lung cancer development and genetic variations of this gene may significantly contribute to increased risk of lung cancer. This is very exciting."

The genomes of 2,272 participants who have never smoked and nearly 900 of who were lung cancer patients were scanned and analyzed by the research teams. It took researchers 12 years to identify and enroll these study participants.

Yang said, "It has been very hard to do this research because never smokers have been mingled with smokers in past studies, and what usually pops up are genes related to nicotine dependence." (With Inputs from Agencies)