Re: Article: Lung Cancer Is a Woman's Disease

thanks for posting this!





"GoddessXena" <goddessxena@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:vERAf.1782$Dk.1673@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Lung Cancer Is a Woman's Disease
>
> By Janice Billingsley
> HealthDay Reporter Sun Jan 22, 9:51 AM ET
>
> SATURDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDayNews) -- Think lung cancer, and most people
> picture a disease that primarily strikes older men who smoke.
>
> What many don't realize is that lung cancer is the leading cancer killer
> of women, responsible for 27 percent of all cancer deaths, ahead of breast
> and colorectal cancer, according to the latest federal statistics. And
> women may be more susceptible to the disease than men, research suggests,
> a fact many women -- and their doctors -- may not realize.
>
> "Lung cancer causes more deaths among women than breast, uterine and
> ovarian cancers combined, but I don't think this is on women's radar
> screens at all," said Dr. Jyoti Patel, an oncologist at Northwestern
> Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and a specialist in women's lung cancer.
>
> "Women who smoked when they were young, stopped 30 years ago and did all
> the right things since are underestimating their risk for lung cancer,"
> added Patel, who co-authored an April 2004 report in the Journal of the
> American Medical Association on the risks of lung cancer in women.
>
> That lack of awareness is often compounded by ill-informed doctors, she
> said.
>
> "When I was in medical school, we were taught that lung cancer is a
> disease for men 60 years and older who smoke, and most interns today still
> think that is typical," Patel said. The result: Many doctors don't talk to
> their female patients about the risks of lung cancer.
>
> But the facts are quite different. More than one in four cancer deaths
> among women in 2003 were due to lung cancer. An estimated 70,000 women
> died from lung cancer in the United States, compared to approximately
> 39,000 women who died from breast cancer, according to the American Cancer
> Society.
>
> There are myriad reasons for both the prevalence of lung cancer among
> women and the high death rate from the disease, health professionals said.
>
> The main culprit, predictably, is smoking.
>
> "If you ask me for the top 10 causes for lung cancer, I'd say nine of them
> are smoking," said Patel.
>
> Nearly one out of five women smoke, and many more are former smokers, she
> noted.
>
> "The risk of developing lung cancer remains for 20 years after quitting,
> and then the risk drops by half," said Viviana Simon, director of
> scientific affairs for the Society for Women's Health Research, in
> Washington, D.C.
>
> But for women, there are other factors linked to the disease that are
> gender-based, she said.
>
> Non-smoking women are more likely to get lung cancer than non-smoking men,
> Simon said. More women than men develop small-cell lung cancer, which is
> more aggressive than other lung cancers and harder to cure. There is some
> evidence that men's and women's hormonal differences could affect the
> course of the disease. And women, no matter what stage of lung cancer they
> have, live longer than men at the same stage of disease, she said.
>
> Yet there's little research into why these gender differences exist and
> what they could mean for treatment of the disease.
>
> "There has to be more awareness in the scientific community, the clinical
> community and the public about the dangers of lung cancer and the
> differences in prevalence and risk for women and men," Simon said.
>
> Research into lung cancer is negligible compared to other cancers, Patel
> said, with only $1,300 spent on research per patient death from lung
> cancer. This compares to $30,000 per patient with HIV, $18,000 per breast
> cancer patient, and $10,000 per prostate cancer patient, she said.
>
> This is partly because there are fewer survivors of lung cancer to lobby
> for a cure for the disease. But there's also a cultural bias against lung
> cancer patients who smoke -- that they brought the disease on themselves,
> Patel said, adding women tend to be particularly susceptible to this line
> of thought.
>
> "Women who have smoked marginalize themselves," Patel said. This sense of
> guilt often leads them to be lax about their health care, and to think
> they're getting what they deserve.
>
> "I say to my patients that they made one bad choice, but I don't think
> anyone would say that one bad choice means they deserve cancer," she said.
>
> Both Patel and Simon said more research is needed if lung cancer deaths
> are to be reduced. Presently, there are few reliable screening techniques
> for early detection. And while there are some promising new drugs to treat
> the disease -- Iressa and Tarceva are two that are effective, especially
> for women -- more science needs to be applied to the task of a cure, Patel
> said.
>
> In the meantime, Patel recommends that women become more proactive about
> their risk for lung cancer, even if they don't smoke or have never smoked.
>
> "If women feel a lump in their breast, they go to the doctor quickly," she
> said, and the same sound approach should apply to lung cancer risk.
>
> Patel recommends paying attention to a cough. Coughs can signal lots of
> problems, from post nasal drip to a cold. But a cough that "changes
> character" in any way, in frequency or severity, means you should see a
> doctor. Similarly if you have shortness of breath, are awakened at night
> by coughing or have blood in your sputum, you should see a doctor and tell
> him about your concerns, she said.


.

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