Lung Cancer Risk Factors For Lifelong Nonsmokers

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Main Category: Lung Cancer
Also Included In: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 09 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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A team of international researchers have found that men who never smoke have higher death rates from lung cancer than women who have never smoked. The new research, published in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine, also claims that African Americans and Asians living in Asia (not in the USA) who are lifelong nonsmokers have higher death rates from lung cancer than lifelong nonsmokers of European descent.

Much of the research that focuses on lung cancer involves the link between smoking and cancer. But of the 161,000 people who will die from lung cancer this year in the US, 20,000 will be in never-smokers. About 85 to 90% of lung cancer deaths are caused by cigarette smoke exposure, and those exposed are 15 times more likely to die from lung cancer than those who never smoke. In this study, however, researchers are focusing on risk factors such as age, sex, race, and geographic location that influence lung cancer in lifelong nonsmokers.

Michael Thun (American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA) and colleagues from around the world used data from 13 large cohort studies and 22 cancer registries from ten countries that represented about 2.5 million people in total. The researchers analyzed the data and developed the largest overview to date of lung cancer incidence and death rates among self reported never smokers.

The findings from Thun and colleagues' data do not support previous research that has posted an increase in lung cancer risk among never smokers or that women have higher incidence rates than men. The researchers do find that lifelong nonsmoking African Americans and Asians living in Korea or Japan have higher lung cancer death rates than nonsmokers of European ancestry, and men nonsmokers have higher lung cancer rates than women nonsmokers, on average. Only women between the ages of 40 and 59 have higher lung cancer incidence rates than men of the same age range. An analysis of lung cancer rates for the past 70 years shows no solid evidence of an increase in the lung cancer burden of nonsmokers over time.

Lung cancer occurrence in never-smokers.
Thun MJ, Hannan LM, Adams-Campbell LL, Boffetta P, Buring JE, et al.
PLoS Medicine (2008). 5(9): e185.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050185
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About PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is an open access, freely available international medical journal. It publishes original research that enhances our understanding of human health and disease, together with commentary and analysis of important global health issues. For more information, visit http://www.plosmedicine.org

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org

Written by: Peter M Crosta
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