Cigarette smoking is common in European-Americans and African-Americans, with similar prevalence of current smoking among adults: 21.4% (95% confidence interval 20.4–22.4) in European-Americans and 19.8% (19.2–21.4) in African-Americans [3]. In past-month smokers, rates of current nicotine dependence, defined by the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) [4], are also similar though slightly lower in African-Americans: 57.3% (55.1–59.5) versus 61.7% (61.0–62.4) in European-Americans [5]. Despite these similarities, African-Americans have a higher incidence of lung cancer than European-Americans (82.7 per 100,000 versus 64.3 per 100,000) and higher lung cancer mortality (64.1 per 100,000 versus 54.1 per 100,000) [6]. Many issues may contribute to these differences in lung cancer, including discrepancies in quit rates and disparities in medical care [7, 8]. Genetic factors such as differences in allele frequencies and linkage disequilibrium (LD) also may play a role.
