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A new global study found that air pollution can cause harmful DNA changes in the lungs, leading to cancer even in people who have never smoked. Researchers from the University of California in San Diego and the US National Cancer Institute analyzed lung tumors from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia.
They discovered that people living in areas with higher air pollution had more mutations in their tumor DNA, especially in the TP53 gene, which is usually linked to smoking-related cancer. The team also found that these people had shorter telomeres, which are protective caps on our chromosomes; when telomeres get shorter, cells age faster and become more prone to cancer.
This study helps explain why lung cancer rates are rising among never-smokers worldwide, a group that now makes up about 10-25% of lung cancer cases. Most of these cancers are adenocarcinomas, which are common in non-smokers and linked to pollution. The research, published in Nature, also highlighted risks from certain Chinese herbal medicines containing aristolochic acid, which caused unique DNA signatures in Taiwanese patients.
Finally, scientists noticed another strange mutation pattern in never-smokers that they are still studying closely to understand its source and impact.
