Radon exposure: a major cause of lung cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Lung cancer is the most important cause of cancer mortality. It is a multifactorial disease with multiple risk factors, including residential radon exposure.

Areas covered: The aim of this paper was to review the epidemiology of residential radon exposure and its impact on lung cancer risk. While tobacco is the main risk factor of lung cancer, residential radon is the first cause in never-smokers and the second in ever-smokers. Moreover, the synergistic effect between tobacco consumption and radon exposure should be considered. However, the biological mechanism by which radon and its decay products induce lung cancer is not entirely known.

Expert opinion: Residential radon is usually neglected by clinicians. In fact, no lung cancer risk score (predicting incidence or mortality) includes radon as a variable. Further studies are needed to find out the molecular pathways of radon that cause lung cancer and whether this radioactive gas is also involved in the development of other diseases other than lung cancer. There is a clear need to increase awareness among administrations, health professionals and the general population in order to take the necessary measures to reduce this harmful exposure, particularly in radon-prone areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Lung neoplasms
• radon
• review

Article highlights

• Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the most common cause of cancer mortality

• Residential radon is considered the second cause of lung cancer in ever-smokers following tobacco and the first cause in never-smokers

• Results obtained by several studies supported a synergistic interaction between tobacco consumption and residential radon exposure

• There is a clear need to increase awareness among administrations, health professionals and general population

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper has been partially funded by a grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. PI15/01211. ‘Small cell lung cancer, risk factors and genetic susceptibility. A multicenter case-control study in Spain (Small Cell Study)’.