Lung cancer in people who have never smoked on the rise - with research pointing to one common cause

The research found nearly 200,000 or about 15 per cent of all adenocarcinoma cases in 2022 were a result of air pollution - (PA Archive)

The proportion of people who have never smoked being diagnosed with lung cancer is rising, with new research pointing to air pollution as a growing contributor to lung cancer around the world.

Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer said for never-smokers, lung cancer was the fifth largest leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Those cases were nearly exclusively the subtype adenocarcinoma - a tumour that forms in the glandular tissue - and largely in women and Asian populations.