Non-smokers form large segment of people with lung cancer

THOUGH smoking presents as the notorious contributor to lung cancer, genetic factors, passive smoking, and air pollution are all contributors as well.

- BY FATHIMA RIZNAZ HAFI

A proportion of it is not related to cigarette smoking as a risk factor

(Parkway Hospitals Singapore Senior Consultant, Medical Oncologist Dr. Wong Siew Wei)

Nonsmokers, in fact, form a large segment of people who can develop this type of cancer, reveals Parkway Hospitals Singapore Senior Consultant, Medical Oncologist Dr. Wong Siew Wei.

“The issue with lung cancer, especially in the Asian context, is a proportion of it is not related to cigarette smoking as a risk factor. There is a bit of a genetic component but it’s not well-described. For example, in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and China, only about 10-15% of women patients would have a history of smoking. The other 80-85% have no issue of smoking, yet they have lung cancer. I believe in Sri Lanka if we have female lung cancer patients, chances are they have not smoked much as well.

“The usual risk factor is still smoking. But outside of smoking, a lot of us don’t realise, family history, is a big one, and there is also passive smoking, and air pollution — all these increase your risk of lung cancer.”

Speaking at a press meet in Colombo, Dr. Wong further revealed, “In fact, there is radiation from the environment. You may say this is a clean island, but there is radiation from the soil. In some communities, they use biofuel for cooking, wood fuel, charcoal fuel — which raise your risk of lung inflammation, chronic lung illness like tuberculosis, and long-term infection of the lungs — all of which cause injury to the lungs and increase your risk of lung cancer as well.”

How do we pick up this cancer at an earlier stage?

The issue comes down to how we pick up this cancer at an earlier stage. Because this is not the typical segment of the population who would actively look out for lung cancer; unlike the smokers who would consider doing scans to check for cancer.