The well described genetic polymorphism of the CYP2D6 gene influences response to a wide variety of therapeutic agents metabolized by the CYP2D6 enzyme product. CYP2D6 also appears to play a role, along with other cytochrome P450 enzymes, in the metabolic activation of the tobacco specific nitrosamine, NNK, as well as metabolism of nicotine to cotinine. While impaired activity of CYP2D6 was strongly protective against lung cancer in some studies, primarily based on phenotyping, the literature is conflicting. The molecular basis of CYP2D6 deficiency is now well understood, enabling the use of genotyping to classify individuals. We therefore examined whether lung cancer risk is reduced by the presence of four CYP2D6 alleles associated with impaired activity due to an inactivating mutation--CYP2D6*4, CYP2D6*3, CYP2D6*5 and CYP2D6*16--among 341 incident cases of lung cancer and 710 population controls of Caucasian or African-American ethnicity in Los Angeles County, California. We did not confirm a strong association between the presence of these inactivating alleles and lung cancer risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.60-1.35 for Caucasians], although there was a small decreased risk among the African-Americans (OR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.38-1.14). Among smokers, when the data are stratified according to lifetime smoking history, there is a suggestion of an association limited to Caucasian smokers of <35 pack-years, the median for all smokers in these data (OR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.23-1.04). However, among African-American smokers, who smoke less than Caucasians, the association did not differ between smoking categories. We also examined the possible role of additional copies of the CYP2D6 gene, which lead to enhanced CYP2D6 activity, in increasing lung cancer risk. Among controls the prevalence of having more than two copies of the CYP2D6 gene and no inactivating alleles was 4.3% for Caucasians and 4.9% for African-Americans. Relative to subjects with an inactivating allele, those with an additional copy of the CYP2D6 gene and no inactivating alleles may be at increased risk of lung cancer, particularly for adenocarcinoma (OR = 3.61, 95% CI 1.08-11.7 for African-Americans and OR = 2.20, 95% CI 0.69-6.0 for Caucasians). Our data suggest that the CYP2D6 genetic polymorphism is not the strong risk factor for lung cancer suggested by some studies of phenotype, but may play a minor role.