USC Study Examines Diet Patterns in Young, Non-Smoking Lung Cancer Patients

Lung cancer diagnosed in people younger than 40 or 50 is increasingly recognized as biologically and epidemiologically distinct from lung cancer in older adults, and researchers are working to understand why it occurs at all in people with few or no traditional risk factors.

The Epidemiology of Young Lung Cancer Project, run by researchers at the University of Southern California, studied 187 people diagnosed with lung cancer by age 50. Most participants had never smoked and were diagnosed with a form of lung cancer that differs biologically from the type typically associated with tobacco use.

Using the Healthy Eating Index, a standard 1-100 measure of diet quality, researchers found that the young, non-smoking lung cancer patients in the study had an average score of 65, compared with a U.S. national average of 57, with women in the study generally scoring higher than men. Participants also reported eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than the average American.

The finding illustrates how much remains unknown about lung cancer in never-smokers, an area of research that has historically received less funding and screening attention than smoking-related lung cancer. See our live Research Progress Tracker for current screening and early-detection research volume.