Sentinel Digital Desk
A new study says that lung cancer cases are rising among people who have never smoked, and air pollution might be a factor. The study was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on World Cancer Day.
Researchers analyzed data from the Global Cancer Observatory 2022 to estimate national lung cancer cases across four subtypes: adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and small- and large-cell carcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma, a cancer from fluid-producing glands, has become the most common subtype in both men and women, accounting for 53–70% of lung cancer cases in 2022 among never-smokers globally.
Adenocarcinoma is weakly linked to cigarette smoking compared to other lung cancer subtypes, the authors said. They noted that as smoking rates drop globally, the proportion of lung cancer cases in non-smokers has risen.
Lung cancer in non-smokers is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths, mostly as adenocarcinoma, particularly in women and Asian populations.
In 2022, 908,630 new cases of lung cancer in women were reported, with adenocarcinoma accounting for 59.7% (541,971). Additionally, 80,378 women with adenocarcinoma worldwide were linked to ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution.