No Butts About It: Non-Smokers Get Lung Cancer

Main Category: Lung Cancer
Also Included In: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 31 Oct 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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You might be one of the millions of Americans who snuffs out their last cigarette on November 15th for the 31st Great American Smokeout. By doing that, you could cut your risk of getting lung cancer. But it might surprise you to know that 1 out of 5 women diagnosed with lung cancer has never smoked.* Now, doctors are starting to see their disease in a different light.

48 year old Melissa Carper is happiest baking cookies with her grandchildren. She doesn't take these times for granted because she has advanced lung cancer - even though she's been a non-smoker her entire life.

"I've tried to lead a healthier path and not get into those types of habits and I kind of feel like, WOW, I didn't do any of those things and I still get this disease," says Melissa. And she's not alone.

"As a disease, never-smoking lung cancer is very common," says Gregory Otterson, MD, at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital. So common, in fact, that by the end of the year, lung cancer will claim some 16,000 women who've never smoked.** Dr. Otterson says it's time to start approaching it as a separate condition.

"Never-smoking lung cancer is a different disease. And I think everyone who's involved in this stuff, we think it absolutely is. Just because it arises from the same origin and looks the same under the microscope, we treat it very differently now," says Otterson.

He says once it's formed, lung cancer among never-smokers can develop differently and may require different therapies. Scientists aren't exactly sure what causes it, but things like second-hand smoke, asbestos, and air pollution may be to blame. However it starts, doctors say approaching it as its own disease may someday help them stop it. And it might protect women like Melissa who suffer health problems despite making the healthy decision not to smoke.

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer among women by far, taking the lives of more women than breast and ovarian cancer combined.** Non-smokers diagnosed with lung cancer are more likely to be women than men.***

*Lung Cancer Alliance, http://www.LungCancerAlliance.com
**"Women & Lung Cancer", http://www.lungcancer.org
***"Lung Cancer 101 - Risk Factors", http://www.lungcancer.org