Lung cancer is no longer a smoker's disease: study

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 31

A new study on lung cancer has cast worrying trends on the emergence of the disease in non-smokers, young people and women.
Trends are severe given that lung cancer is typically a disease of smokers, the elderly and a person with a male preponderance. But the scenario seems to be changing among Indians or so is finding a study of 150 patients at the outpatient department of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the capital.
"Lung cancer has a very high mortality rate, but despite the progress of treatment, the reduction in death rates has been marginal.This cancer currently causes the highest number of cancer deaths in India." We have noted a worrying trend in outpatient clinics where we have seen more and more lung cancer in relatively young people and non-smokers.We decided to badyze the details of those patients who were treated with us from March 2012 to June 2018. The goal was to unravel the new trends, "said Neeraj Jain, president of chest medicine at the hospital today.
The results revealed that 21% of patients were under 50 years of age and 5 of 31 were under 30 years of age. Half of the patients were non-smokers, indicating that air pollution is the new source of lung cancer, normally caused by smoking. "None of the patients under the age of 30 was a smoker." The ratio of men to women in the study group was 3.8: 1, indicating a significant increase in the proportion of women compared to men. previous studies that reported a much lower incidence in women, "said researchers on the eve of World Lung Cancer. Day.
In addition, 30% of patients were initially misdiagnosed as TB, which delayed diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Arvind Kumar, president of the Ganga Ram hospital's thoracic surgery center, said that despite the limitation of a relatively small number of patients, the study showed a significant trend in the 39, incidence of lung cancer.
"The onset of the disease in patients under 50, with some under 30 years, the increase in the proportion of women and nearly 1: 1 ratio of non-smokers and smokers point towards environmental factors like air pollution as a major causal agent, "he said.
The study draws attention to the need for a more robust data collection system for lung cancer in India and the need to take steps to prevent lung cancer by early detection , smoking cessation and immediate measures to control indoor and outdoor air pollution. 19659012] All readers are welcome to post comments responsibly. Any message with foul language or incitement to hatred will be deleted. Comments with all capital letters will also be deleted. Readers are encouraged to report comments they deem inappropriate.
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