Call for action as air pollution causes lung cancer in non-smokers

THOUSANDS of non-smokers are dying from lung cancer every year because of air pollution and other carcinogens, Public Health England has warned.

Some 6,000 people who have never smoked die in Britain annually from the disease, more than are killed by cervical and ovarian cancer combined.

Yet, because lung cancer is still viewed as a disease of smokers, and largely self-inflicted, diagnosis in nonsmokers is often late and funding for research is reduced.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, a group of respiratory medicine and public health experts has called for greater recognition of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Lead author Prof Paul Cosford, the director for health protection and medical director at Public Health England, said: “For too long, having lung cancer has only been thought of as a smokingrelated disease. This remains an important association but, as this work shows, the scale of the challenge means there is a need to raise awareness with clinicians and policymakers of the other risk factors, including indoor and outdoor air pollution.”

Major contributors include secondhand smoke, occupational carcinogen exposure and air pollution from cooking, transport and industry.

Lung cancer accounts for around 13 per cent of all cancers in Britain and 22 per cent of cancer deaths, with around 42,000 new cases identified every year and around 35,000 deaths. But it receives just £400 research funding per death, compared with breast cancer, which gets £3,500. That has led to virtually no improvement in survival rates for lung cancer in the last 50 years. At the beginning of the 70s just 3 per cent survived for 10 years and today it is around 5 per cent.

In the same time period, survival for breast cancer rose from 40 per cent to 78.5 per cent. Women are also disproportionately affected with studies showing that one in five women who develop lung cancer have never smoked, compared with one in 10 men.

And lung cancer among non-smokers appears to be rising. The proportion of non-smokers having surgery for lung cancer jumped from 13 per cent in 2008 to 28 per cent in 2014.

Co-author Prof Mick Peake, the clinical director of the Centre for Cancer Outcomes at University College London Hospitals Cancer Collaborative, said: “Despite advances in our understanding, most people who have never smoked do not believe they are at risk and often experience long delays in diagnosis, reducing their chances of receiving curative treatment. The stigma of smoking has been the major factor behind the lack of interest in, knowledge of and research into lung cancer.”