ERS: Microplastic Burden Higher in Patients With Lung Cancer

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with lung cancer have a higher microplastic burden, according to a study presented at the annual congress of the European Respiratory Society, held from Sept. 5 to 9 in Barcelona, Spain.Ilias E. Dimeas, M.D., from the University College Dublin School of Medicine and the University of Thessaly in Larissa, Greece, and colleagues quantified microplastic burden and characterized particle features in paired bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and lung tissue samples among 100 adults undergoing diagnostic bronchoscopy: 50 were subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer and 50 were not.The researchers identified 232 microplastic particles, with 70 percent of patients having detectable microplastics in at least one sample. Compared with nonmalignant participants, the total microplastic burden was higher in patients with lung malignancy; patients with lung cancer were more likely to have detectable microplastics in their BAL (66 versus 46 percent). There was a strong correlation observed for total microplastic counts with BAL counts, but not with tissue counts, indicating compartmental discordance. A significant inverse correlation was demonstrated in BAL and tissue microplastic counts in the malignancy subgroup. A nonrandom distribution was seen by diagnosis in Raman characterization of particles; epithelial malignancies were enriched in fluorescence-only particles."This type of study doesn't tell us why we found more microplastics in the samples from lung cancer patients," Dimeas said in a statement. "Microplastics could contribute to inflammation or other biological processes that may contribute to diseases like cancer, but it is also possible that diseased lungs simply retain particles differently than healthy lungs."Press ReleaseMore Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

ERS: Microplastic Burden Higher in Patients With Lung Cancer

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