Epidemic of lung cancer among American women has been looming

Main Category: Lung Cancer
Article Date: 14 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Doctors say that lung cancer among American women has been steadily increasing for the last half century. According to a report in the American Medical Association, this increase has not peaked and will continue to grow.

Lung cancer deaths have overtaken breast cancer deaths for women in the USA. In fact, lung cancer deaths total more than all other gynaecologic cancers put together.

As smoking among men has fallen, as have the number of lung cancer deaths among men, the opposite is true for lung cancer deaths among women.

Between the years 1930-1997 tobacco related deaths among American women has increased six-fold.

Dr. Jyoti Patel, Hematology/Oncology Instructor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA, said "The numbers are far beyond what we would have imagined 30 years ago. In fact, the numbers are in excess of what we would have predicted, and they continue to increase…..People need to realize that lung cancer is a women's disease,'' added Patel, lead author of the study. ``When you talk to most women, they don't seem to realize that they have a real susceptibility to lung cancer.''

68,510 women in the USA will die of lung cancer this year, 40,110 will die of breast cancer, 16,090 will die of ovarian cancer and 7,090 will die of uterine cancer (American Cancer Society).

The number of young women who start smoking is worrying. Many young women start smoking and continue to do so as a means to control their weight.

Another worrying fact is that many of the female lung-cancer patients had given up many years ago. Female smokers are more likely to have oestrogen receptors stippling their tumour cells, this encourages the growth of the lung cancer.

However, women seem to fair better than men when they are treated for lung cancer.

(Spelling: UK - Tumour, Oestrogen. USA - Tumor, Estrogen).

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