ST. PAUL, Minn., May 19 (UPI) -- With lung cancer rates among non-smokers rising, especially young East Asian women, a new study released Monday is touting the promise of an artificial intelligence tool to "strongly" predict who's most at risk.
Lung cancer has long been associated with smoking. But even as overall rates steadily drop and smoking decreases around the world, a unique population of young East Asians are seeing a 2% annual increase in lung cancer cases -- even though half of them have never smoked.
The cause of this remains unknown, but suspicion is centered on genetic mutations developed during a person's lifetime rather than inherited, such as damage to a gene that codes for a protein known as EGFR, which prevents cells from growing too quickly.
This genetic damage is believed to be caused by environmental toxins including second-hand smoke and even fumes produced by high-temperature stir-fry cooking in rooms that lack proper ventilation.
Globally, more than 50% of women diagnosed with lung cancer are non-smokers, compared to 15% to 20% of men. Meanwhile, an estimated 57% of Asian-American women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked, compared to only about 15% of all other women, according to a recent University of California-San Francisco study.
