Every year, lung cancer kills more than 100,000 people in the United States. Smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer, but other environmental exposures can also contribute to the disease.

In an advance that could help prevent some of those lung cancer deaths, MIT researchers have shown that blocking an enzyme involved in lung inflammation appears to reduce the risk of developing tumors. 

The researchers found that this enzyme, caspase-1, is active in developing tumors in mice. When they treated the mice with a small-molecule drug that inhibits caspase-1, the mice were much less likely to develop lung tumors.