Every year on August 1, the world unites to create awareness of lung cancer, the most common and deadliest form of cancer worldwide. Lung cancer is also a major risk factor in India, accounting for 5.9% of all cancer cases and a worrying 8.1% of cancer deaths. Alarmingly, almost 80% of lung cancer patients in India have a history of smoking.

Lung cancer is considered to be the most common and the leading cause of cancer deaths across the world. Except for smoking tobacco, the main cause of lung cancer, people who never smoke can also be diagnosed with lung cancer. According to a report, 15% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer have no history of smoking or tobacco use. And 20% of women diagnosed with lung cancer never smoked. In fact, lung cancer among non-smokers is considered the 6th or 7th most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States of America.

Similarly, there are many patients in India diagnosed with lung cancer but they never smoked a cigarette. There are common causes of lung cancer in non-smokers and these include: air pollution both indoor and outdoor, exposure to passive smoking, exposure to asbestos, exposure to radon gas, diesel exhaust fumes and genetic tendency.

Many lung cancer patients in India are already in the last stage of their life. It means that the cancer has spread to the lungs (locally advanced) or other parts of the body (metastatic). Delayed diagnosis makes it difficult to treat cancer. Therefore, it is important to create awareness of early symptoms and help patients fight the disease aggressively.