New research points to air pollution as a growing contributor to lung cancer around the world. The research, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, found nearly 200,000 or about 15 per cent of all adenocarcinoma cases in 2022 were a result of air pollution, suggesting the risk of lung cancer linked to air pollution was also on the rise, particularly in east Asia and China. “As smoking prevalence continues to decline in many countries worldwide, the proportion of cancer in people who have never smoked has increased,” the researchers said.

“Air pollution can be considered an important factor that partly explains the emerging predominance of adenocarcinoma that accounts for 53 to 70 per cent of cases of lung cancer among people who have never smoked worldwide.”. The researchers also noted that exposure to the burning of solid fuels in households for heating and cooking could be a factor in rising lung cancer cases among Chinese women who had never smoked.

“We estimated that the largest burden of adenocarcinoma attributable to ambient PM pollution was in East Asia especially in China, indicating that preventive measures such as air quality management programmes focused on major sources of air pollution and widespread access to clean energy should be prioritised in these settings,” they said. The researchers estimated there were nearly 1.6 million new cases of lung cancer in men in 2022, of which nearly 720,000 were adenocarcinoma. In women there were nearly 910,000 cases of lung cancer in the same year, and about 542,000 of those were adenocarcinoma.

Cancer Research UK estimates there are nearly 50,000 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year in the country, making it Britain’s third most common form of cancer. It’s also the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Lung cancer survival has not improved much in the last 50 years, according to Cancer Research UK, with less than one in 10 (9.5 per cent) of people diagnosed with the disease surviving for 10 years or more.

The plan will provide targets to improve cancer survival rates and care, and is expected to include specific action for rare cancers. The health secretary, writing in The Independent, said he knew “limbo is a horrible place to be” and “many cancer patients don’t experience the NHS at its best”. “The tough reality is that after years of neglect, too many patients face long waits, delayed diagnoses and critical gaps in the urgent care they so desperately need,” he added.