Air Pollution Causes Early Death To Lung Cancer Patients

Air pollution is one of the common contributing factors in the development of disease, especially in the respiratory tract. But, a new study has found that air pollution can be one of the contributing causes in the shortened life-span of patients with lung cancer.

Immortalnews.org reported that a new research has revealed that not only do airborne toxins have a number of negative health impacts on one's health, researchers also found that people diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer are at risk of premature deaths. This is said to be especially true to those with adenocarcinoma which is the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer. According to Medscape, it comprises 80 percent of all lung cancer cases.

The research, led by Sandrag Eckel with the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles studied data of over 352,000 people in California diagnosed with lung cancer between 1988 and 2009, whose details had been entered into the US California Cancer Registry. Their average age when they were diagnosed was 69.

The participants' average exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter of less than 10 um, and less than 2.5 um, in diameter (PM10 and PM2.5 ) was calculated using data taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring stations, mapped according to area of residence. According to Times of India, it showed that half of the study participants lived more than 1,500 meters away a major interstate motorway, less than 10 percent are living within a 300 meter radius of one. Then, the participants' risk of death from any cause was estimated, according to disease stage and tumor cell type.

After considering all of these factors and those who can potentially exacerbate their condition, the result of the calculation showed that early stage patients with higher exposure to pollutants survived an average of 2 to 4 years compared to 5 to 7 years for those with low exposure, However, the magnitude of heightened risk was greatest for patients with early stage disease, among whom average survival was 2.4 years for those with high PM2.5 exposure (at least 16 ug/m3) and 5.7 years for those with low exposure (less than 10 ug/m3), for example.

Overall, patients with early stage disease had a 30 percent greater risk of death of any cause from NO2; 26 percent greater for PM10; and 38 percent greater for PM2.5. Meanwhile, newsmax.com also reported that since this was an observational study, there aren't really concrete conclusions that can be drawn about cause and effect, the researchers said. However, they noted that the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies air pollution as a cancer-causing agent.

"This study, along with two other previously published analyses on the impact of air pollution on cancer survival, provide compelling initial evidence that air pollution may be a potential target for future prevention and intervention studies to increase cancer survival," Dr. Jaime Hart wrote in an accompanying journal editorial.