Over the past ten years, common genetic variations at 5p15.33 (TERT/CLPTM1L), 6p21.33 (BAT3/MSH5) and 15q25.1 (CHRNA5/CHRNA3/CHRNB4) are identified to modify the lung cancer susceptibility in GWAS8–13 and GWAS-based meta-analyses14, 15 (eg, TERT rs2736100, CHRNA3 rs8042374, APOM rs3117582, MSH5 rs3131379, and GTF2H4 rs114596632). Here, MSH5 is linked to lung cancer.