00:00Let's turn now to a special interview we're doing regarding the situation health-wise with lung cancer
00:07after new data reveals that lung cancer is on the rise, especially in women who've never smoked.
00:13An alarming revelation, of course, that the disease is very much associated with smokers.
00:19And from my own experience, close family, three people, mum, dad, one of my sisters, died this way.
00:25They were all smokers, and there was obviously a clear link between the lung cancer and that.
00:30New data, though, is suggesting that there's something else going on.
00:33In the U.S., 20% of new cases apparently are in people who have never smoked.
00:39This comes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
00:41Young women making up the majority of the cases.
00:44Experts believe that the rise in non-smoking cases is largely driven by radon exposure, air pollution, and genetic mutations.
00:52Well, I, for one, am incredibly alarmed by these words and this development.
00:58So let's bring in an expert who can give us some kind of insight into what is happening, why it's happening,
01:04and what perhaps can be done to protect ourselves from it.
01:07Dr. Pina Ursal-Urgana joins us, a reader in molecular biology, cancer mechanisms, and biomarkers research.
01:12He's going to be there at the University of Westminster.
01:15Pina, thanks for being with us.
01:17It's a pleasure to have you.
01:18I've got so many questions.
01:19First off, how alarmed are you that non-smokers are getting lung cancer, especially, it seems, young women?
01:28I am alarmed, especially in women, because there's no one size fits for all.
01:35So it's like lung cancer is no longer only for the smokers.
01:41So it shows that we should just shift this whole awareness.
01:46So we should be aware that not only the smokers, but the others can also get cancer, lung cancer specifically.
01:54So as you very rightly summarized, the reasons are highly complicated.
01:59So it could be the air pollution.
02:03It could be the particular mutations.
02:06Inflammation is one of those because it just increases the risk of getting cancer.
02:10But like why specifically in women, that is the interesting thing for me specifically.
02:16I've been reading about this a lot.
02:18And the study that you mentioned, which was the early, I think it was around February this year, was published in Lancet.
02:26And it was showing that globally in different regions of the world as well,
02:32it's showing that more and more young women are diagnosed in lung cancer.
02:37There's one issue that I read about, epidermal growth factor reception.
02:43This is incredibly complicated.
02:45And I wonder if you could break that down for us into a more sort of understandable way
02:51and explain how that links into these other factors that aren't smoking that are giving people,
02:56especially young women, lung cancer.
02:59I'll try my best.
03:01So epidermal growth factor, we all have it.
03:03So it is an epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR, which is necessary for our normal cellular level.
03:14However, the studies are showing this.
03:16So the PM2.5, which is the small particles which we get with the air pollution, with inhaling,
03:24is sort of like increasing the mutations in this gene.
03:28So almost like all the cases, we do see the EGFR mutations.
03:33And the result of that, with the EGFR mutations, can increase the cellular proliferation.
03:39What I mean by that, if there is a one cancer cell, because the mutation sort of triggers,
03:45so these like faulty, if I may say, the cancer cell is going to keep dividing.
03:51And then suddenly we are going to have many of these like faulty cells, which they all are carrying the similar mutations.
03:59What is interesting is, as I said, most of the lung cancer cases, we do see this EGFR mutation.
04:06However, when we look at the geographical regions, especially in Asian women,
04:12they do have more of these EGFR mutations when you compare to the Western women or when you compare to the males.
04:22So clearly, the particular area in China, for instance, or like Asian women, they do have this inherited risk.
04:31On top of that, with these like air pollutions are just making these cases like even more severe.
04:38So we're all at risk of that then via air pollution.
04:42I regularly see a sign daubed on a bridge.
04:45It's graffiti.
04:46But I think there's a real sort of sensible issue behind it.
04:4948,000 XX deaths in the Paris region every year because of air pollution.
04:53Is that the main issue?
04:56That is one of the main issue.
04:58But also, obviously, the females and the males, we do have different kind of hormones.
05:03So for the women, we do have estrogen, and it seems like the estrogen is also protective.
05:10So in some cases, there are some studies that they are showing that with the air pollution and the reduced level of the estrogen can also increase the risk.
05:21When it comes to the air pollution, if you think about it in one way, we are like achieving a lot.
05:28So we do have like in the big cities, of course, our lifestyles are different than 100 years ago.
05:34So we are, the smoking is decreases.
05:38However, we do expose to more air pollutions, more radon gas, as you pointed out.
05:45We do have kerosens.
05:47So we do have like more air pollutions around, and we do maybe use like less oil, less gas.
05:54However, on the contrary, especially with these days, we do have the climate risk.
06:01So we do have wildfires suddenly, like more frequently.
06:05So therefore, the air quality is also being affected, and then we are inhaling this air as well.
06:12We need to leave it there, but there is so much more to discuss.
06:15Thank you for at least giving us food for thought and a sense of what the situation is about.
06:19Dr. Piena Usao-Logana, joining us from the University of Westminster.
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