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The European Respiratory Society (ERS) has revealed an increase in the number of non-smokers diagnosed with lung-cancer, specifically among women.

Though Little is known about risk factors that can cause lung cancer in non-smokers, although recently the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed earlier this year that exhaust fumes from diesel engines were a cause of lung cancer.

Aiming initially to examine the effects of changes the management of persons diagnosed with luncg cancer and to understand the incidence and effects of lung cancer amongst the population,, researchers studied 7,610 people with lung cancer and 7,610 new cases of lung cancer in France in 2010, 6,083 of whom had non-small cell lung cancer.

According to a report released by ERS, the results found an increase in the number of women and non-smokers developing lung cancer.

"11.9% of the lung cancer cases in the study were non-smokers, which had also increased from 7.9% from 10 years previously. 24.4% of lung cancer patients in the 2010 study were female; an increase from 16% in 2000. When looking at the female smokers or former-smokers in the study, lung cancer rates had barely changed from 64% in 2000 to 66% in 2010. This figure had decreased in men, in addition to the rate of male never-smokers also increasing."

The study also found that 58% of people with lung cancer were diagnosed at stage 4 of the disease, the most advanced stage when the cancer has spread to both lungs, or another part of the body.

Lead author, Dr Chrystèle Locher, said in ERC statement: "We have seen from these results the change in lung cancer over the last 10 years. Not only has there been an increase in the number of women and non-smokers contracting the disease, but there has also been an increase in the number of cases diagnosed in stage 4 of the illness.

Researchers next intend to launch a global analyses of the changes in lung cancer to see if the pattern is consistent in other parts of the world or if it is simply locale specific. They, like the rest of us, hope it is the latter.