Researchers at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, studied 134 people who participated in a smoking-cessation program. All of the participants had a particular gene called DRD2, which is a dopamine receptor.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that influences how brain cells communicate with each other. The DRD2 gene, which has been found in people with obesity, alcoholism, cocaine addiction, and pathological gambling, is made up of A1 or A2 alleles.

For the study, all participants were given a nicotine patch and received counseling. Some of the smokers also received an antidepressant drug or a placebo.

The researchers found that 37 percent of those taking the antidepressant abstained from cigarettes for 18 weeks, compared with 25 percent of the placebo group.

But researchers also found that smokers with an A1 DRD2 gene were more likely to start smoking again after the 18 weeks.

"If you have the A1 allele, you quit smoking less often," said Paul Cinciripini, director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at M.D. Anderson, and one of the study's authors.

Cinciripini pointed out that the study's findings could provide added assistance to smokers trying to quit. He explained that smokers could be screened for the gene and receive certain drugs that may help them to successfully stop smoking.

Dr. Dileep Bal, president of the American Cancer Society, added, "If we genetically characterize the dependent smoker, we can potentially tailor-make drugs for each genetic profile or to simplify, if you have genetic profile x, y and z, you can find different drugs that work for x, y and z."

The study, the first to examine how genes can contribute to or hinder smoking-cessation efforts, was presented at an American Cancer Society conference in Dana Point, Calif.

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