Women and Lung Cancer - Are Women the Weaker Sex?
It was once thought that women were the weaker sex – at least in their ability to deal with tobacco carcinogens. A recent study bashed that theory; women smokers are no more likely to develop lung cancer than men who smoke. Yet, there are many differences in the way men and women develop – and respond to treatment for – lung cancer.
When Dana Reeve developed lung cancer and died at age 44 as a lifelong non-smoker, we were reminded that non-smokers could get lung cancer. Women who develop lung cancer are less likely to have smoked than men, and 20% of lung cancers in women occur in women who have never lit up.
For those women who do develop lung cancer, however, survival is better at every stage of the disease.
To understand more of the differences between men and women with lung cancer, including responses to treatment, read Gender and Lung Cancer – Differences Between Women and Men With Lung Cancer.
I hope that these reminders – that men and women differ with respect to lung cancer – will guide us as researchers and physicians to appreciate and act on the unique qualities of the sexes in cancer treatment, as we do in so many other areas of life.
Source:
Freedman, N. et al. Cigarette smoking and subsequent risk of lung cancer in men and women: analysis of a prospective cohort study. Lancet Oncology. July 2008. Early online publication 14 June 2008.
Comments
I am curious – why is it that no researchers study the effects of hairspray? If there is one compound that women use that men rarely use, it is hairspray. Is it so simple that it’s ridiculous to think it’s a cause? Most women I know use hairspray daily. The men I know, not so much. Researchers study smoking, 2nd hand smoke, genetics. Do they ever consider beauty products? I used to think, “How horrible”, when I’d hear about a non-smoking woman that I didn’t know getting lung cancer. Think of Dana Reeves! But now I know a woman, very early 50’s, never smoked, not a drinker. She wasn’t diagnosed with a treatable lung cancer. She was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. What do most women have in common who have lung cancer and who have not been smokers? It HAS to be hairspray or other beauty products. I never see that mentioned in articles though!?