LIVE WEBINAR: Air Pollution and Cancer – 2 April 2025, 15:00 CEST – Register now! – IARC-ESMO Cancer Prevention Learning and Capacity-Building Initiative

How has research on air pollution and cancer progressed in the past decade?

What is the status of research on air pollution and cancer types other than lung cancer?

What do we know about the potential impact of air pollution on tumour molecular and immunological profiles?

2 April 2025, 15:00 CEST

Share this learning opportunity

Register now!

Join us for the live event, ask your questions, and share your comments directly with our speakers.

CHAIR

Dr Joachim Schüz

Head, Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch

International Agency for Research on Cancer

About Dr Joachim Schüz

GET PREPARED

Consult the IARC interactive and immersive self-paced e-learning course on Introduction to Research on Pollution and Cancer, developed with the support of ESMO.

Available on the IARC Learning Space of the new World Health Organization (WHO) Academy learning platform HERE.

SPEAKERS

Air Pollution and Cancer: Overview of
Epidemiological Evidence

Professor Zorana Jovanovic Andersen

Professor in Environmental Epidemiology

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The link between air pollution and lung cancer is well established and relies on sound scientific evidence, which formed the basis for the 2013 IARC report on air pollution and cancer confirming that air pollution is carcinogenic to humans. Since the 2013 IARC report, evidence on air pollution and cancers other than lung cancer has been growing. This presentation will give an overview of the evidence on air pollution and cancers other than lung cancer from two large European multicentre studies: the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE) and Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE). Professor Andersen will introduce the audience to the ESCAPE and ELAPSE projects and summarize major findings from studies of breast, liver, stomach, kidney, and bladder cancers, leukaemia, multiple myeloma, and brain tumours. The presentation will include a reflection on the findings and significance of the two studies in the context of the overall evidence on air pollution and non-lung cancers.

Short biography: Professor Zorana Jovanovic Andersen

Dr Zorana Jovanovic Andersen is a Professor in Environmental Epidemiology at the Department of Public Health of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Former Chair of the European Respiratory Society Environment and Health Committee. Her main research areas include health effects of air pollution on respiratory disease, including asthma in children and adults, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and acute lower respiratory infections and COVID-19. Her other areas of research include air pollution and cardiometabolic diseases, dementia, and mental health, as well as climate change and health, health effects of road traffic noise, environmental exposures and ageing, interaction between air pollution and physical activity, and capacity-building in air pollution in environmental epidemiology in Serbia and the Western Balkans, among others. Professor Andersen is passionate about advocacy on clean air and translation of knowledge from research on health effects of air pollution to policy-makers at the local, national, European, and global levels, as an active member of the Expert Group on Air Pollution in Copenhagen Municipality, the Danish Council for Disease Prevention, the Policy Committee of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, the International Network for Epidemiology in Policy, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group. She received the European Respiratory Society Mid-Career Gold Medal in Epidemiology and Environment in 2022.

Air Pollution and Cancer: Clinical Implications

Dr Laura Mezquita

Clinician and Scientist in Thoracic Oncology and Molecular Epidemiology

Hospital Clinic of Barcelona – IDIBAPS, Spain

Air pollution is a well-established risk factor for cancer and other diseases, supported by robust epidemiological evidence. Beyond its role in cancer risk, emerging research highlights its clinical implications in lung cancer and other tumour types. Recent studies suggest that air pollution may influence tumour molecular and immunological profiles, potentially affecting disease progression and patient outcomes. In this presentation, Dr Mezquita will review the latest evidence on the impact of air pollution across different cancer subtypes, examining its impact on tumour profile and its clinical implications. The session will provide an updated perspective on how air pollution could contribute to cancer heterogeneity and on precision medicine approaches to improve cancer care.

Short biography: Dr Laura Mezquita

Dr Laura Mezquita is a medical oncologist specializing in thoracic oncology. She is a Clinician-Scientist at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona – Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona-Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Dr Mezquita trained at Institut Gustave Roussy (France) as a Research and Clinical Fellow in Immuno-oncology and Thoracic Oncology. She completed her PhD in 2018 on radon exposure and lung cancer, and continued to postdoctoral research with the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN). Since 2020, she has led the Grupo Medioambiente y Cáncer (MECA), focusing on the environmental and occupational exposome in lung cancer and other solid tumours. She is Co-Principal Investigator in the RadoNorm Consortium (Horizon 2020; EURATOM) and co-coordinates BioRadon, a European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-sponsored trial on radon and lung cancer in 975 patients across Europe. Dr Mezquita has 131 indexed publications (h-index: 36) and more than 179 conference contributions. An active member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), she serves on the ESMO Faculty for Metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the ESMO Leadership Development Committee. She coordinated the Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica (SEOM) Environmental/Occupational Cancer Working Group and is the National Coordinator of the Spanish Sentinel Oncologist Network for Occupational Cancer Detection. She is a frequent speaker at major conferences, such as ESMO, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).

Organized with the support of and in collaboration with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).