Ambient air pollution and lung cancer in China: need for large-scale cohort studies

The lung cancer burden in China is substantial, with more than 0.79 million newly diagnosed cases and about 0.631 million deaths occurring in 2015. The incidence and mortality for lung cancer are relatively stable, however, the number of cancer deaths substantially increased because of the aging and growth of the population. Chinese government has implemented a series of mitigation actions to improving the air environment and protecting human health since 2012, however, the aforementioned facts highlight the importance and challenge of continued efforts. More importantly, in light of the limited cohorts for air pollutants’ health effect, large-scale cohort studies with high quality are urgently needed to generate local evidence for developing countries with higher ambient exposures. In addition, an overwhelming need also exists to prioritize and integrate primary prevention and early detection measures into existing healthcare plans to reduce the occurrence of cancer.