Air Pollution Linked To Lung Cancer-Driving DNA Mutations, Study Finds

Air pollution has been linked to a swathe of lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, in a study of people diagnosed with the disease despite never having smoked tobacco. From a report: The findings from an investigation into cancer patients around the world helps explain why those who have never smoked make up a rising proportion of people developing the cancer, a trend the researchers called an 'urgent and growing global problem.'

Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, a senior author on the study at the University of California in San Diego, said researchers had observed the 'problematic trend' but had not understood the cause. 'Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking,' he said.

The scientists analyzed the entire genetic code of lung tumors removed from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations were present in residents' tumors. Fine-particulate air pollution was in particular linked to mutations in the TP53 gene. These have previously been associated with tobacco smoking.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.