WHAT WE KNOW ...
Environmental and occupational determinants of lung cancer
Lung cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally , accounting for 2,094 million cases and 1.8 million deaths per year ( 1 ) . Lung cancer has become the most common cancer in the world for the last several decades and showing an increase in incidence in the developing countries ( 2 ) . Lung cancer , unfortunately does not become clinically apparent until it reaches an advanced stage and more than 75 % of lung cancers are diagnosed when disease is advanced
or metastatic ( 3 ) . In India , approximately 114,000 new lung cancer cases are reported each year ( 4 ).
According to GLOBOCAN 2018 , lung cancer represented 11.6 % of all types of cancers , out of which 80 % were attributed to smoking ( 5-7 ) . Outdoor air pollution caused 108,000 lung cancer deaths ( 8 ) ; solid fuels , used more in developing countries for cooking and heating , caused 36,000 lung cancer deaths ( 8 , 9 ) ; second-hand smoke was estimated to cause 21,000 lung cancer deaths ( 10 ) .