ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2026
Residential radon exposure and lung cancer histology and stage: a population-based ecological study in Central Germany.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeResidential radon exposure is recognised as one of the leading environmental risk factors for lung cancer and acts synergistically with tobacco smoking. Thuringia, Germany, exhibits high geogenic radon potential; however, population-level associations with lung cancer histology and stage at diagnosis remain insufficiently characterised.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective ecological analysis of 893 lung cancer cases (2018-2022) from the Thuringian State Cancer Registry. Cases from 96 communities were classified as high- or low-radon exposure based on geogenic radon potential and soil radon activity. Demographics, histology and stage were compared between groups.
resultsPopulation-level lung cancer incidence did not differ significantly between low- and high-radon communities, consistent with age- and sex-adjusted Poisson regression showing no association with residential radon exposure (adjusted IRR 1.05, p = 0.473). However, all cases in women younger than 50 years occurred in high-radon communities. Adenocarcinoma was nominally more frequent (56% vs. 48%, p = 0.04), and among patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), extensive-stage disease was more common (64% vs. 49%, p = 0.04), with combined SCLC occurring exclusively; however, these findings were not significant after correction for multiple testing.
conclusionIn this ecological analysis, residential radon exposure was not associated with annual lung cancer incidence but was linked to tumour histology and stage at diagnosis. Given the ecological design and lack of smoking and occupational exposure data, these findings are hypothesis-generating and warrant further investigation to clarify radon's role in lung cancer biology and prevention.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.