Lung cancer in non-smokers is a diverse and distinct disease from that in smokers, and is likely to respond differently to targeted treatments, a major new study shows.
Scientists studied a population in Taiwan with high rates of lung cancer among non-smokers – and found a range of genetic changes which varied depending on a patient’s age or sex.
Many non-smokers with lung cancer had signs of DNA damage from environmental carcinogens, and young women in particular had particular genetic changes which are known to drive cancer to evolve aggressively.