Epigenetic Predictors of Smoking: External Validation and Association With Smoking-Related Cancer Risk.

Abstract

Tobacco smoking has a strong influence on DNA methylation (DNAm), enabling the development of DNAm-based smoking predictors, yet external evaluations of these have remained limited. We aimed to assess six DNAm-based smoking predictors in a large sample of middle-aged and older Australians for (i) their accuracy and reliability, and (ii) their association with risk of smoking-related cancers. We used blood DNAm data from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study to calculate six DNAm-based smoking predictors (EpiSmokEr, Elliott-183, McCartney-233, DNAmPACKYEARS, PCPACKYEARS, and mCigarette). Accuracy with respect to self-reported smoking pack-years (N = 2875, median age: 61 years) was assessed..