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Association Between Socioeconomic Position and Lung Cancer Incidence in 16 Countries: A Prospective Cohort Consortium Study Publisher



Onwuka JU1 ; Zahed H1 ; Feng X1 ; Alcala K1 ; Erhunmwunsee L2 ; Williams RM3 ; Aldrich MC4 ; Ahluwalia JS5 ; Albanes D6 ; Arslan AA7 ; Bassett JK8, 9 ; Brennan P1 ; Cai Q10 ; Chen C11 Show All Authors
Authors
  1. Onwuka JU1
  2. Zahed H1
  3. Feng X1
  4. Alcala K1
  5. Erhunmwunsee L2
  6. Williams RM3
  7. Aldrich MC4
  8. Ahluwalia JS5
  9. Albanes D6
  10. Arslan AA7
  11. Bassett JK8, 9
  12. Brennan P1
  13. Cai Q10
  14. Chen C11
  15. Dimou N12
  16. Ferrari P12
  17. Freedman ND6
  18. Huang WY6
  19. Jones ME13
  20. Jones MR14
  21. Kaaks R15
  22. Koh WP16, 17
  23. Langhammer A18, 19
  24. Liao LM6
  25. Malekzadeh R20
  26. Milne RL8, 9, 21
  27. Rohan TE22
  28. Sanchez MJ23, 24, 25
  29. Sheikh M1
  30. Sinha R6
  31. Shu XO10
  32. Stevens VL26
  33. Tinker LF27
  34. Visvanathan K28, 29
  35. Wang Y30
  36. Wang R31
  37. Weinstein SJ6
  38. White E32
  39. Yuan JM33, 34
  40. Zheng W35
  41. Johansson M1
  42. Robbins HA1
Show Affiliations
Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Genomic Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
  2. 2. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, United States
  3. 3. Department of Oncology, Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States
  4. 4. Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
  5. 5. Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University School of Public Health and Alpert School of Medicine, Providence, RI, United States
  6. 6. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, United States
  7. 7. Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
  8. 8. Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
  9. 9. Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
  10. 10. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
  11. 11. Program in Epidemiology and the Women's Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States
  12. 12. Nutrition and Metabolism Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
  13. 13. Division of Genetics and Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom
  14. 14. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
  15. 15. Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
  16. 16. Healthy Longevity Translational Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
  17. 17. Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
  18. 18. Department of Public Health and Nursing, HUNT Research Center, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Levanger, Norway
  19. 19. Levanger Hospital, Nord-Trondelag Hospital Trust, Levanger, Norway
  20. 20. Digestive Disease Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  21. 21. School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  22. 22. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States
  23. 23. Escuela Andaluza de Salud Publica, Granada, Spain
  24. 24. Instituto de Investigacion Biosanitaria ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain
  25. 25. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red de Epidemiologia y Salud Publica (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
  26. 26. Social and Scientific Systems, DLH Holdings Corporation, Atlanta, GA, United States
  27. 27. Division of Public Health Sciences, Women's Health Initiative Clinical Coordinating Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States
  28. 28. Division of Cancer Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
  29. 29. Johns Hopkins Women's Malignancies Program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
  30. 30. American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, United States
  31. 31. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  32. 32. Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States
  33. 33. Department of Epidemiology, of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  34. 34. Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, UPMC Hillman Cancer Centre, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  35. 35. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN, United States

Source: eClinicalMedicine Published:2025


Abstract

Background: Studies have reported higher lung cancer incidence among groups with lower socioeconomic position (SEP). However, it is not known how this difference in lung cancer incidence between SEP groups varies across different geographical settings. Furthermore, most prior studies that assessed the association between SEP and lung cancer incidence were conducted without detailed adjustment for smoking. Therefore, we aimed to assess this relationship across world regions. Methods: In this international prospective cohort consortium study, we used data from the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3), which includes 20 prospective population cohorts from 16 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Participants were enrolled between 1985 and 2010 and followed for cancer outcomes using registry linkages and/or active follow-up. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for the association between educational level (our primary measure of SEP, in 4 categories) and incident lung cancer using Cox proportional hazards models separately for participants with and without a smoking history. The models were adjusted for age, sex, cohort (when multiple cohorts were included), smoking duration, cigarettes per day, and time since cessation. Findings: Among 2,487,511 participants, 53,830 developed lung cancer during a 13.5-year median follow-up (IQR = 6.5–15.0 years). Among participants with a smoking history, higher education was associated with decreased lung cancer incidence in nearly every cohort after detailed smoking adjustment. By world region, this association was observed in North America (HR per one-category increase in education [HRtrend] = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.87–0.89), Europe (HRtrend = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.88–0.91), and Asia (HRtrend = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.86–0.96), but not in the Australian study (HRtrend = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.95–1.09). By histological subtype, education associated most strongly with squamous cell carcinoma and more weakly with adenocarcinoma (p-heterogeneity < 0.0001). Among participants who never smoked, there was no association between education and lung cancer incidence in any cohort (all p-trend > 0.05), except the USA Southern Community Cohort Study (HRtrend = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.62–0.90). Interpretation: Based on longitudinal data from 2.5 million participants from 16 countries, our findings suggest that higher educational attainment was associated with lower lung cancer risk among participants with a smoking history, but not among participants who never smoked. Limitations of our study include that cohort participants cannot fully represent the general populations of the geographical regions included, and education was the only measure of SEP consistently available across our consortium. Funding: This study was supported in part by theNational Cancer Institute (NCI), theLung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF), and theWorld Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). © 2025 World Health Organization