INTEGRAL-ILCCO cohort data analysis revealed the association of clonal haematopoiesis with an increased risk of lung cancer

To investigate the association between clonal haematopoiesis (CH) and lung cancer risk, we identified CH mutations in 1 059 lung cancer cases and 899 controls using the blood whole-exome sequencing data generated from the Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Etiology and Risk project of the International Lung Cancer Consortium (INTEGRAL-ILCCO). Based on the variant allele frequency (VAF) of these mutations, we stratified CH carriers into two groups, low VAF (1%–10%) and high VAF (≥10%), respectively. We observed a significant association between the presence of CH mutations and the risk of lung cancer after adjusting for known risk factors (odd ratio, OR = 1.37, 95% confidence interval, CI = 1.02–1.85). Such an association was largely driven by CH mutations with high-VAF, the OR for high-VAF CH and low-VAF CH were 2.54 (1.38–4.93) and 1.14 (0.82–1.6), respectively. Trend analysis indicated a significant dose–response relationship (P trend = 0.004). This association between high-VAF CH and lung cancer risk remained consistent when subjects were stratified by risk factors or lung cancer histological subtypes. A combination of results from INTEGRAL-ILCCO, UKBB, and MGBB cohorts resulted in a meta-analysed OR of 1.36 (95% CI = 1.14–1.62) for all CH carriers and of 1.76 (95% CI = 1.34–2.31) for high-VAF CH carriers, respectively. In conclusion, our analysis revealed a significant association between CH and increased risk of lung cancer as supported by three independent cohorts.