The study involved 183,813 people, more than half of them minorities. Patients filled out questionnaires about their smoking habits, diet and other personal information.

      Researchers from USC and the University of Hawaii analyzed lung cancer cases over an eight-year period. After adjusting for diet, education and other factors, the researchers found that Whites who smoked up to a pack a day had a 43 percent to 55 percent lower risk of lung cancer than Blacks who smoked the same amount. Hispanics and Japanese-Americans were 60 percent to 80 percent less likely than blacks to develop the disease.

      The study found no difference in lung cancer risk among the various ethnic groups for those who smoked more than three packs a day.

      Black, Hispanic and Japanese-American men who never smoked had higher risks of lung cancer than White men, but hardly any difference was seen in women in the same ethnic groups.

      According to the American Lung Association, Black men are 50 percent more likely to develop lung cancer and 36 percent more likely to die from the disease than White men.

      The studies were done by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and INSERM, the French equivalent of the National Institutes of Health.

      If larger studies confirm the findings, it could lead to the offering of genetic testing to high-risk groups, as is done now for breast cancer gene mutations among Eastern European Jewish women.

— Associated Press