Air pollution leaves detectable blood markers years before lung cancer diagnosis

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., with over half of cases occurring in never-smokers or those ineligible for current screening.

For decades, science has known that polluted air can seed lung cancer — yet the biological story unfolding inside the body between first breath of contaminated air and first tumor has remained largely unwritten. A new study tracking over a thousand cancer-free individuals has now found measurable changes in blood chemistry linked to air pollution exposure, changes that appear years before any diagnosis arrives. The discovery is especially consequential because more than half of all lung cancer deaths in America occur in people who never smoked or who fall outside current screening eligibility

Air pollution leaves detectable blood markers years before lung cancer diagnosis

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