Nation IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Blacks’ Lung Cancer Susceptibility Cited

Blacks may be biologically more likely than whites to develop lung cancer from smoking, according to a study released at a cancer conference in San Francisco. The results are particularly relevant because cigarette manufacturers have been accused of aggressively targeting blacks in their marketing campaigns, said John Richie of the American Health Foundation, which conducted the study. “Our initial data seem to indicate that blacks have a poorer capacity than whites to detoxify NNK, one of the most important tobacco-related carcinogens linked to lung cancer,” Richie told a meeting of the American Assn. for Cancer Research.