Air Pollution affects Lung Cancer Survival

Patients exposed to air pollution after diagnosis of lung cancer have shorter survival, in particular those patients with early-stage non-small cell cancers (specially adenocarcinomas), according to a study published by Thorax and conducted by researchers from the Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California. The first study of this kind was based on a population of over 300 thousand patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer over more than two decades. In this podcast, Dr Jaime Hart, from the Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and author of the Thorax editorial about this study, tells Dr Jennifer Quint the details of this study and its impact on how air pollution is considered by general population. Read the original article ’Air pollution affects lung cancer survival’, which corresponding author is Dr Sandrah P Eckel, here: http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2016/06/22/thoraxjnl-2015-207927.full. The editorial is available here: http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2016/07/20/thoraxjnl-2016-208967.full.