MAPK8 and lung cancer: In this regard, observations of increased lung cancer incidence in smokers with COPD compared with smokers without COPD after correction for smoking intensity and duration [34,35] have been coupled with functional studies in animal models that have identified and validated candidate molecular culprits for this link, including NF-κΒ, tumor-related protein 53(TRP53, P53), and Janus kinase (JNK) [9-11].