Rates of lung cancer diagnoses among people who have never smoked are rising, according to the World Health Organization’s cancer agency.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) estimates that lung cancer is now the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide among people who have never smoked. In particular, this demographic is almost exclusively experiencing adenocarcinoma, one of four primary sub-types of the disease.
In 2022, around 200,000 instances of adenocarcinoma were thought to be linked to poor air quality, according to an IARC study. East Asia, and especially China, experienced the highest rates.
Despite the rising instances of lung cancer among people who have never smoked, a report published by the American Lung Association last year has actually found survival rates for the disease have been trending up. In the past five years alone, lung cancer survival rates have soared 26%.
The report claims this is partly due to the use of biomarker testing, which helps identify and track changes in a tumor’s DNA and improve treatments. When identified early, lung cancer can sometimes be treated before it spreads.
“With declines in smoking prevalence – as seen in the UK and US – the proportion of lung cancers diagnosed among those who have never smoked tends to increase,” said the study’s lead author and head of the IARC’s cancer surveillance branch, Dr Freddie Bray, per The Guardian.
“Whether the global proportion of adenocarcinomas attributable to ambient air pollution will increase depends on the relative success of future strategies to curtail tobacco use and air pollution worldwide.”
In 2022, around 2.5 million people around the world were diagnosed with lung cancer, which persists as the leading cause of cancer incidence and mortality.
Adenocarcinoma represented around 45.6% of cases for men that year, up from 39.0% in 2020.
For women, adenocarcinoma accounted for 59.7% of all lung cancer cases, up from 57.1% during that same period.
For never-smokers, the number is even higher, with 70% of all lung cancer cases represented by the adenocarcinoma sub-type.
In 2023, The Dallas Express reported on the leading causes of death in Dallas County. Heart disease came in at number one, with 167 deaths per 100,000. Cancer was close behind in second place, with 143 deaths per 100,000, with lung cancer the most prevalent type of the disease for both men and women in the county.