DNA mutations linked to tobacco now found in non-smokers exposed to toxic air—explaining rising cancer rates among younger, never-smoking patients.
United States: A number of lung cancer-causing DNA mutations have been attributed to air pollution in an analysis of individuals who developed lung cancer yet never smoked a cigarette.
More about the news
The results of the study of cancer patients all over the world contribute to the setting of the role, which is played by non-smokers among the increasing number of individuals undergoing cancer, which the researchers considered an imminent and climbing worldwide issue.
Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, one of the senior authors on the study at UC San Diego, said the researchers had noticed the concerning trend but had not grasped what was causing it, as the Guardian reported,
Published @Nature : Air pollution may drive TP53 and other mutations in lung cancer among never-smokers.
— ilyas sahin, MD (@ilyassahinMD) July 2, 2025
EGFR was common in East Asia, KRAS in the West; secondhand smoke showed minimal genomic impact, and herbal toxin–linked signatures were seen in Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/Nr9lfSKqGG
“Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking,” he noted.
The researchers recorded the complete genetic sequence of tumors within the lungs of 871 never-smoking people in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia in the Sherlock-Lung study.
They discovered that the greater the concentrations of air pollution in an area, the greater the number of cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations in the tumors of residents.
Mutations in the TP53 gene were specially connected to fine-particulate air pollution.
They have already been linked with tobacco smoking. Individuals with higher levels of air pollution also had the telomeres, protective strands of DNA at the end of chromosomes, which are frequently associated with clips on shoelaces shorter.
Shortening of telomeres early is an indication of faster cell division characteristic of cancer.
What more are the experts stating?
According to Dr Maria Teresa Landi, an epidemiologist on the study at the US National Cancer Institute in Maryland, “This is an urgent and growing global problem that we are working to understand,” the Guardian reported.
As smoking is declining in most territories around the globe, including the UK and the US, not only has the proportion of lung cancer patients who never smoked increased, but also, these people are relatively younger.
It is projected that the proportion of lung cancers (that are nowadays diagnosed) within this group lies between 10-25%.
Virtually all these cancers are a form of cancer referred to as adenocarcinoma. In the world, lung cancer tops the list of cases of cancer deaths.
Approximately 2.5m new cases are identified every year in the world.