Health. Your toenails can reveal your risk of lung cancer.

According to the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), approximately 3,000 cases of lung cancer are attributable to radon each year in France. This represents about 10% of all cases. The IRSN has also produced a map showing that certain French regions are particularly exposed to radon, notably granite areas such as Brittany, the Massif Central, Corsica, and the Vosges Mountains.

Despite these alarming figures, radon remains largely unknown to the general public, and lung cancer screening programs do not yet consider exposure to this gas as a risk factor. But this is expected to change.

Collecting nail clippings…

Radon can accumulate in homes, particularly in poorly ventilated areas such as basements. When inhaled, this gas quickly transforms into a type of radioactive lead that is deposited in tissues, including fingernails.

Based on this principle, researchers at the University of Calgary (Canada) recruited volunteers to analyze their toenail clippings. " We discovered that our toenails retain long-term information about our exposure to toxic radioactive substances present in our environment, such as radon ," they explain. " They constitute a kind of archive of our body regarding past exposures. "

Thus, according to the authors, measuring radioactive lead in toenails could be a promising method for estimating a person's long-term radon exposure. It could revolutionize lung cancer screening by allowing the identification of at-risk individuals before the onset of symptoms.

Thanks to these promising results, the researchers secured funding from the Canadian Cancer Society to launch a larger-scale validation study, hoping to recruit up to 10,000 participants across Canada.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202500532X?viaihub