Credibility assessment of the accumulated epidemiological evidence from 246 eligible variants suggested that eight genetic variants (APEX1 rs1760944, AXIN2 rs2240308, CHRNA3 rs6495309, CXCR2 rs1126579, CYP2E1 rs6413432, HYKK rs931794, PON1 rs662 and REV3L rs462779) were strongly associated with the risk of lung cancer development, and ten (ATM rs189037, CD3EAP rs967591, CYP2A6 rs1801272, HIF1A rs11549467, PDCD5 rs1862214, PROM1 rs2240688, TP53 rs12951053, TP63 rs10937405, WWOX CNV-67048 and XRCC1 rs3213255) were moderately associated with this risk. This evidence concerns the gene CHRNA3 and lung cancer.