Srinagar, Feb. 4 -- The proportion of lung cancer diagnoses among people who have never smoked is rising, with air pollution identified as a significant contributing factor, according to the World Health Organization's cancer agency.

Lung cancer in never-smokers is now estimated to be the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, as reported by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

This form of lung cancer is occurring predominantly as adenocarcinoma, which has emerged as the most common subtype among both men and women globally. The IARC study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, found that approximately 200,000 cases of adenocarcinoma in 2022 were linked to air pollution exposure.

The...