Association of wildfire exposure while recovering from lung cancer surgery with overall survival

With a changing climate, wildfire activity in the US has increased dramatically, presenting health hazards. Individuals discharged from the hospital following surgical resection of non-small cell lung cancer are potentially at higher risk from wildfires’ health hazards. In a cohort study of 466,012 patients during the first year after lung cancer surgery, those exposed to a wilfire had worse overall survival than those who were unexposed. The authors conclude that these findings suggest that with increasing wildfire activity, identification of medically high-risk populations, such as patients with lung cancer, is crucial for disaster preparedness and response efforts.