Significant increase in cases of lung cancer among non -smokers bring into question the pollution of air as one of the determining causes, but also the need for new studies to establish other causal factors.
Increasing diagnoses of lung cancer among non -smokers. Photo archive
The diagnosis of lung cancer is increasing among non -smokers around the world, with a higher incidence in East Asia, especially in China, according to a report of the International Cancer Research (IARC).
Doctors have this worrying tendency, in the context in which lung cancer in people who have never smoked is now estimated to be the fifth cause of death through worldwide cancer.
Pulmonary cancer in non -smokers also appears almost exclusively in the form of adenocarcinoma, which has become the most dominant of the four main subtypes of the disease in both men and women, according to The Guardian, which cites the IARC report .
About 200,000 cases of adenocarcinoma were associated with exposure to air pollution in 2022, this being considered “an important factor”, the largest incidence of the disease being recorded in East Asia, especially in China, found the study.
Dr. Freddie Bray, the main author of the study and the head of the cancer surveillance branch of IARC, said that the results underline the need for urgent risk of changing lung cancer. He also added that additional studies are needed to identify possible causal factors, such as air pollution, in populations where smoking is not considered the main cause of lung cancer.
“With the decrease of the prevalence of smoking, the proportion of pulmonary cancers diagnosed among those who have never smoked tends to grow”, He expressed his concern.
Pulmonary cancer remains one of the most widespread forms of this disease, but also one with extremely high mortality. In 2022, about 2.5 million people were diagnosed with this disease. But the incidence models according to the subtype have changed dramatically in recent decades.
Current trends suggest that while men still represent most cases of lung cancer (about 1.6 million in 2022), the difference between the incidence of lung cancer in men and women has reduced, in the same year 900,000 women diagnosed with lung cancer are registered. .
