World No Tobacco Day (“Tobacco and Lung Health”)

29 May 2019 : Dr. Vineet Datta, Executive Director at Datar Cancer Genetics Ltd, says that worldwide, over 1.8 million new Lung Cancer cases are registered annually. Lung cancer occurs mostly in adults over 60 years of age and history of long-term tobacco smoking hugely increases the person’s risk of developing lung cancer. Other risk factors include exposure to pollution, asbestos, metals, second hand smoke, Chronic bronchitis, etc.

However, thanks to the advances in molecular genetics, it is becoming more accepted that the identification of genomic alterations in lung cancer can have great impact in the choices of drugs and in our understanding of patient specific drug sensitivity/resistance profile. This has led to significantly higher therapy successes in lung cancer patients. Advanced molecular testing is now an integral part of lung cancer diagnosis and management.