While lung cancer continues to be the deadliest form of cancer globally, people who have never smoked are making up a growing proportion of those who are battling the disease. In 2022, about 2.5 million people were diagnosed with it.
Fewer smokers in many countries — including the U.S. — may account for some of that shift in cancer causation. But air pollution may also be playing a growing role, according to a World Health Organization study published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.
The study estimates that lung cancer in people who have never smoked cigarettes or tobacco in any form is now the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide. The forms of lung cancer are also shifting along with the causes.
