Research into causes of lung cancer
Researchers around the world are looking into the causes of lung cancer.
Go to Cancer Research UK’s clinical trials database if you are looking for a trial for lung cancer in the UK. You need to talk to your specialist if there are any trials that you think you might be able to take part in.
Click on the ‘recruiting’, ‘closed’ and ‘results’ tabs to make sure you see all the trials.
Some of the trials on this page have now stopped recruiting people. It takes time before the results are available. This is because the trial team follow the patients for a period of time and collects and analyses the results. We have included this ongoing research to give examples of the type of research being carried out in lung cancer.
Research and clinical trials
All cancer treatments must be fully researched before they can be used for everyone. This is so we can be sure that:
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they work
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they work better than the treatments already available
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they are safe
To make sure the research is accurate, each trial has certain entry conditions for who can take part. These are different for each trial.
Hospitals do not take part in every clinical trial. Some trials are only done in a small number of hospitals, or in one area of the country. You may need to travel quite far if you take part in these trials.
Genes and lifestyle
Researchers are collecting information to learn more about lung cancer's causes in the Liverpool area. They are interested in the relationship between:
- the places someone has lived
- the jobs they have done
- their health, medical and family history
To look at this, they are making a store of information from around 2,500 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the Liverpool area of the UK.
The researchers will look at the damage to 
caused by exposure to things such as tobacco smoke and pollution.
They will also try to identify genes that might increase the risk of lung cancer.
Air pollution
The TRACERx study looked at how non small cell lung cancer (NCSLC) changes over time.
As part of the study, the researchers wanted to find out more about the causes of lung cancer in people who have never smoked. It is common for people with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have never smoked to have changes () in a gene called .
The researchers looked at the link between NCSLC with EGFR changes and tiny (microscopic) particles in the air. These are called particulate matter, or PM. They can include particles such as smoke, soot and dust.
The researchers looked at thousands of people and analysed hundreds of tissue samples. They found that increased exposure to particulate matter can change how the works. And that this can increase the risk of NSCLC developing. This is for people with a change in the EGFR gene.
