Sri Lanka, Feb. 4 -- Lung cancer cases among non-smokers are rising, with air pollution potentially contributing to the increase, according to a new study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on World Cancer Day.

The findings of the study showed that adenocarcinoma, a cancer that originates in the glands that produce fluids such as mucus, accounted for 53-70 per cent of lung cancer cases in non-smokers globally in 2022.

Unlike the other lung cancer types that they identified, adenocarcinoma is only weakly linked to cigarette smoking, the study notes. As smoking rates decline worldwide, the proportion of lung cancer cases among non-smokers has grown.

Adenocarcinoma has also become the most common type of cancer found acr...