The ratio of smokers suffering from lung cancer to non-smokers suffering from the disease is 1:1 as the disease is found equally in non smokers and the reason is pollution, says an analytic study of 150 lung cancer patients who underwent treatment at Sir Ganga Ram hospital from March 2012 to June 2018. The study released by the hospital ahead of World lung Cancer Day also suggested that the disease is now affecting people in their 20s and 30s.
“We analyzed around 150 patients of lung cancer who came here between 2012 and 2018 retrospectively and we drew disturbing conclusion that around 50 per cent of these patients were actually non-smokers. So, there has been a drastic increase in these incidents in non-smokers” said (Prof) Dr Arvind Kumar, Chairman, Centre for Chest Surgery, Sri Ganga Ram Hospital.
According to Kumar, the common symptoms of lung cancer include cough, blood while coughing, restlessness, and infections in lungs which are also prevalent in tuberculosis (TB) and hence, these symptoms are generally mistaken for TB.
“Interestingly, in our study we found that around 45 patients were there who went to doctors and were treated for TB initially. They took these medicines for months but when they did not see any improvements, tests were done and they were treated accordingly”, he said.
He said that several studies have found that low dose Computed Tomography (CT) Scan can lead to decrease in lung cancer cases by 20 per cent.
“Strangely, in our study it was found that in 13 cases, there were no symptoms involved. These patients underwent CT scans or X-Rays for different reasons and cancer was detected in these tests. So, low dose CT scans can be used to detect the diseases early on”, said Dr Kumar.
According to the doctor when they further looked into the age of these patients, they found that around 21 per cent of our patients were below 50. “In the study, we also found that 5 patients out of total 31young patients were below 30. Even more distressing was the fact that out of these 31 young patients, 70 per cent patients were non-smokers”, said Dr Kumar. None of the less than 30 years of patients were smokers, added the doctor.
The doctor further added that the disease in young people cannot happen due to smoking because it generally takes 15 to 20 years of continuous smoking to develop cancer cells. Therefore, the data suggested that pollution played a crucial role in contributing to the disease.
“All the non-smokers today are actually 'so called' non-smokers because several studies have already suggested that breathing in this air is equivalent to smoking. As far as young patients are concerned, today an infant starts smoking the moment he starts breathing in a big city. So, as he reaches 20s or 30s, he becomes a patient” he said.