Many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated with lung cancer but lack confirmation and functional characterization. We retested the association of 56 candidate SNPs with lung adenocarcinoma risk and overall survival in a cohort of 823 Italian patients and 779 healthy controls, and assessed their function as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). In the replication study, eight SNPs (rs401681, rs3019885, rs732765, rs2568494, rs16969968, rs6495309, rs11634351, and rs4105144) associated with lung adenocarcinoma risk and three (rs9557635, rs4105144, and rs735482) associated with survival. Five of these SNPs acted as cis-eQTLs, being associated with the transcription of IREB2 (rs2568494, rs16969968, rs11634351, rs6495309), PSMA4 (rs6495309) and ERCC1 (rs735482), out of 10,821 genes analyzed in lung. For these three genes, we obtained experimental evidence of differential allelic expression in lung tissue, pointing to the existence of in-cis genomic variants that regulate their transcription. These results suggest that these SNPs exert their effects on cancer risk/outcome through the modulation of mRNA levels of their target genes.The study of genetic factors modulating an individual's predisposition to lung cancer is supported by strong epidemiological evidence obtained from various types of studies. Observational studies have consistently reported an increased risk of lung cancer in first-degree relatives of lung cancer patients 1-5 . Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on population-based series identified three main susceptibility loci, at 5p15 6-8 , 6p21 6 , and 15q25. The locus at 15q25 harbors genes for three nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits (CHRNA3, CHRNA5, and CHRNB4) that have previously been associated with lung cancer risk and nicotine dependence 6,9,10 . Other GWAS found many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that associated with lung cancer risk [11][12][13][14][15][16] . However, the results obtained in these studies have not generally been confirmed, even in a large consortium study 17 .Some genetic variants associated with lung cancer risk have also been associated with prognosis. For instance, a polymorphism (rs6495309) in the promoter of CHRNA3 gene has been reported to be associated with the overall survival of patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) 18 . Moreover, rs667282 in CHRNA5 has recently been proposed as a modifier of prognosis in advanced NSCLC 19 . Several other SNPs, found using a GWAS approach, were proposed to be associated with prognosis or survival of lung cancer patients in different populations [20][21][22][23] . However, these studies did not identify the same candidate polymorphisms, which may be due (at least in part) to the wide genetic heterogeneity of the human population.The GWAS cited here, which aimed to find SNPs associated with lung cancer risk or prognosis, identified mostly non-overlapping subsets of SNPs, hindering progress in lung cancer research. One limitation of these studies is that they investigate...