Lung cancer increases HO concentration in the exhaled breath condensate, extent of mtDNA damage, and mtDNA copy number in buccal mucosa.

We have shown that the HO concentration in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in lung cancer patients increases significantly compared to the EBC of healthy people and revealed the correlation between the HO level in the EBC and amount of mtDNA damage in buccal mucosa cells. The HO hyper-production may trigger mitochondrial biogenesis, thereby resulting in an increase in mtDNA copy number. However, we did not observe a significant difference in the studied parameters between smokers and non-smokers.