Like Reeve, widow of "Superman" star Christopher Reeve, 1 in 5 women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette, doctors say. Yet they share an unfortunate stigma with cancer patients who smoked.
"The underlying assumption is, you were a smoker and you caused this, therefore you're not going to get my sympathy," said Tom Labrecque Jr., who started a foundation to raise awareness after his nonsmoker father died several years ago of the disease.
No one "deserves" lung cancer, doctors say. But nonsmokers do have one silver lining: They respond better to the newest targeted cancer drugs like Iressa and Tarceva.
That's because people who get lung cancer early in life, like the 44-year-old Reeve, are more likely to have genetic factors fueling their disease, doctors say. Only 3 percent of lung cancers occur in people under 45, regardless of smoking status.
Reeve, an actress who leads a paralysis research foundation named for her husband who died last year, disclosed Tuesday that she was being treated for lung cancer but gave no details on how or where.
Her announcement came two days after ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, a smoker, died of lung cancer at age 67.
Despite their different smoking histories, they share the most common cancer in the world, and the deadliest. This year in the United States, an estimated 93,010 men and 79,560 women will be diagnosed with lung cancer and almost an equal number -- 90,490 men and 73,020 women -- will die of it.
About 10 percent of men and 20 percent of women with lung cancer never smoked, and the number of nonsmokers with the disease doesn't seem to be rising significantly, said Dr. Michael Thun, chief epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society.
But awareness may be on the rise because of the aggressive anti-smoking campaigns in recent years. And stigma may be rising, too.
"When people get breast cancer, people say, 'What can I do to help you?' When people get lung cancer, people say, 'Did you smoke?"' said Susan Mantel, executive director of Joan's Legacy, a fund-raising group named for Joan Scarangello, a nonsmoker and former head writer for newsman Tom Brokaw. Scarangello died in 2001 of lung cancer, as did her nonsmoking mother before her.
"There is a definite stigma," said Labrecque, recalling comments after the funeral for his father, a former chairman of Chase Manhattan Corp.
"People would say, 'I didn't know he smoked,"' he said.
His foundation's Web site even acknowledges this trend, by stating that more than half of people newly diagnosed with lung cancer each year have either never smoked or quit smoking.
women 's "mortality and image" were said to be "at stake" when it came to her smoking in
Whether lung cancer is operable or not, may well depend upon the circumstances of the patient involved; however, where certain factors do not allow for this option, other treatments may well be offered. Many factors must be taken into consideration before any treatment or operation can take place, as either may have a prominent bearing on the prognosis of the cancer patient.
Over the last 50 years, smoking and the public image of smoking has changed dramatically. Americans have learned the harmful effects of smoking and have put a heavy disdain on the use of it. The number of new smokers has drastically dropped over the years and many that had previously smoked have stopped. Some have turned to electronic cigarettes as a safer way to intake nicotine. Over the years, smoking advertisements have changed drastically. Nowadays, tobacco advertisements are virtually non-existent in our society, but when they were abundant they depicted smoking as a cool and sophisticated activity. Today, smoking advertisements are shown by electronic cigarette companies. These companies emphasize the healthier lifestyle these products
In addition to being responsible for 87% of lung cancers, smoking is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney, and bladder. Smoking accounts for at least 29% of all cancer deaths, is a major cause of heart disease, and is associated with conditions ranging from colds and gastric ulcers to chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and cerebrovascular disease. Women have a better chance in getting lung cancer then men do. This year the disease will kill 68,000 women in the United States, more than one and a half times as many as breast cancer. Even if a woman smoked for awhile and quit, her chances are much greater then a man that smoked 2 times longer then the woman did.
There are more than a million people suffer from cancer in the United States every day. Lung cancer is not the only type of cancer but it affects many people and families every day. Lung cancer makes the lives of its patients and the families. Lung cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer and also one of the most common. Hundreds of thousands of people get diagnosed with lung cancer every year in just the United States. Also close to just as many people die from lung cancer in the US every year. I am going to talk about lung cancer and what it is, how to lower your risk of getting it, statistics of it, and the research and treatment of it.
Over the years, the partnership between health ministers and health groups has produced some very substantial gains on the subject of tobacco use. Smoking bans that were thought of as radical 20 years ago are now commonplace. Public awareness of smoking risks has never been higher. And our new Tobacco Act sets a world standard for anti-tobacco legislation.
Many people try to quit smoking but it still is very possible to develop lung cancer years after you quit. The risk of second hand smoke is real and women are at a higher risk to develop cancer this way. In addition, there is evidence that lung cancer in people who never smoke have a better prognosis than in those who do smoke, and that patients ...
Lung cancer dates back to 1761 when it was called disease. In 1878 only 1% of the populations were thought to have it. When the 1900s came by that number rose to 15%. There was only 374 case filed by 1912. It wasn’t until 1929 when smoking became a factor in lung cancer. Fritz Lickint was the first person to tell the public about the dangers of smoking that which went into a campaign act to tell worldwide about the dangers of smoking.
The distribution of health is determined by a wide variety of individual, community, and national factors. There is a growing body of evidence documenting inequalities in both the distribution of health and access to health care in the United Kingdom. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer for both men and women in England (Office for National Statistics, 2013). The majority of lung cancer cases in the United Kingdom occur as a result of tobacco smoking, 80-90% of lung cancer cases can be attributed to this with only 10-20% of cases being attributed to diet and occupational exposures to carcinogens, such as radiation (Parkin, Boyd and Walker, 2011). Research also suggests that socio-economic deprivation is associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer.
Smokers understand how hard it is to quit. They admire those who were able to quit. We understand the risk of smoking and the obvious side effects that could result in death. Although all the studies show the death effect of smoking, many of us are still unable to quit. In the essay, Phillip brought his girlfriend to a social gathering, where she pulled out a cigarette and started smoking.
D’Estries, Michael. Talia Castellano: Ellen DeGeneres mourns the loss of 13-year-old cancer her. Mother Nature Network. July 2013. http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/talia-castellano-ellen-degeneres-mourns-the-loss-of-13-year-old
diagnosed late and the 5-year survival rate is only 15%. Possible treatments for lung cancer are
This represents 4.0% of all male 1.8% of female hospitalisations respectively. The epidemiologic evidence and the corresponding biological understanding of respiratory cancer have supported the conclusion that smoking causes lung cancer. It is well documented that cigarette smoke: · is the major cause of lung cancer (primary carcinoma of the lung). · is a cause of heart disease, chronic lung disease, and oesophageal cancer.
Smoking maintains a thirty percent contribution to the cause of cancer in the United States. Even after the Surgeons warning in 1988 regarding the critically harmful effects of tobacco use, lung cancer from smoking continues to have a death rate that is greater than breast cancer, colorectal and prostate combined. Even with these clear warnings and statistics, smokers diagnosed with lung cancer still find it difficult to stop smoking. Smoking cessation after a diagnosis is a key proponent of increasing life endurance and quality. (Cooley, M. et.al., 2008)
Approximately one in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. The most common of the diseases caused by smoking is cancer, of course. Not only is it a cause of lung cancer, but cancer of the larynx, and the esophagus, and it contributes to the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, and kidney. Lung cancer comes from the tar in the cigarettes.