Poor air quality behind more than half of lung cancer cases in Kolkata, say experts

Kolkata: Pollution could be responsible for more than half of Kolkata’s lung cancer cases, warned experts at a symposium on the occasion of World Cancer Day on Friday. While cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma — which is usually linked with smoking — were more common till recently.

Experts said they are now coming across more and more patients with adenocarcinoma, which is evidently linked with declining air quality. “We are seeing an alarming rise in lung cancer patients, and majority of them do not have any history of smoking,” said Woodlands Hospital pulmonologist Arup Halder.

Health experts from the city urged for a collective effort to clean up the ambient air to save lives. Suman Mallik, chief of radiation oncology and MV Chandrakantha, a consultant medical oncologist of Narayana Superspeciality Hospital said air pollution was behind more than 50% of lung cancer cases. “I have not found any history of smoking in more than half my patients,” they added.

Chandrakantha called for a collective effort from all sectors to clean up the air to reduce the burden of diseases. “Air pollution is considered to be the single largest threat to human health globally. By polluting the air, we are exposing the children to a greater risk,” said senior paediatric and neonatal medicine expert Abhijit Sarkar.

“The rise of child patients with sinusitis, pneumonia, and childhood asthma is very very sharp.” Sarkar said that exposure of young adults to an increase of every 10 microgram finer particulate matter (PM2.5) per cubic meter of air, increases the risk of cancer by 22%, upper digestive tract cancer by 42% and lower GI tract cancer by 35%.

“In the absence of data on the prevalence of cancer affliction, we can only assume what we are seeing and discussing is only a tip of an iceberg and solutions are not as obvious as we think. But the cleaning up of ambient air should be the top priority as it is playing havoc with our lives, be it respiratory diseases, cardiac ailments or various types of cancer,” said Bishan Basu, head of radiotherapy, Calcutta National Medical College.

The SwitchOn Foundation, which organised the symposium, also launched Clean Air Medical Students Ambassador programme. Medical students chosen for the programme will get a stipend and undergo training on air pollution and its impact.