Lung Cancer in Women - Surprising Facts Revealed!

Let's face it. Lung cancer in women is the leading cause of deaths related to cancer in the United States. In fact, the American Cancer Society estimates that more than 70,000 women die from this disease each year. Here are some facts you need to know regarding this dreaded disease in women:

Smoking and Lung Cancer

Many studies have already proven that the primary cause of lung cancer is cigarette smoking. According to the latest statistics, about 17% of women in the United States are smokers and this number increases every year. However, this number is still not related to the increasing number of this type of cancer in women.

In the past 80 years, the number of deaths in women in the United States increased more than 600%. Surprisingly, the numbers have stabilized recently, signifying that this type of cancer is still the top cause of deaths related to cancer in women even with the modern treatments available.

Risk Factors for Non-smoking Women

Let's face another harsh reality that lung cancer is also diagnosed in non-smoking women. According to studies, here are the risk factors that contribute to the development of this disease in women who do not smoke:

* Genetic factors like how the body reacts to carcinogens or substances that cause cancer
* Environmental factors like exposure to secondhand smoke, dangerous gas, asbestos, and air pollution
* Hormones like estrogen
* General health and well-being

Smoking and Women

The percentage of women who smoke in the United States slightly increases every year. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 500,000 teenage girls use some kind of tobacco product. Studies conclude that most of this is because of the belief that smoking helps reduce or control weight. Another recent study in the journal of Tobacco Control considered the advertising messages from the inside of the tobacco industry and public marketing collections.

The study found that cigarette advertisements for young women are aimed at themes of friendship, freedom, independence and confidence. For older women, the theme is usually about pleasure, social acceptance, relaxation and escape from normal daily life.

So what is the implication of this study? Are women who become hooked on smoking more prone to lung cancer? Truth is, it is still unknown whether they are more likely to develop this kind of cancer from smoking compared to men.

Several studies suggest that women have a higher risk of developing lung cancer from smoking. But here's the problem. There are also studies suggesting that regardless of gender, the risk percentage of getting cancer of the lungs due to smoking has no difference at all! Unresolved issue, huh? Listen here. It is a fact that smoking is addicting and there is a lot of evidence that it is harder for women to quit smoking compared to men.

Conclusion

For an unknown reason, women with lung cancer live longer than men who have the same disease. The 5-year relative survival rate for women who have cancer of the lungs is about 16% while for men it is only 12%. This is according to a recent study survival rate for this kind of cancer. Scientists and researchers are just beginning to have a clear idea how this is different in women. There is still a long way to go when it comes to understanding lung cancer in women.

My name is Jet Jones and I research and write about lung cancer stages. Please visit my site at http://lungcancer-stages.com/ to find information about lung cancer stages and treatments that can help you better understand this dreaded disease.

Original article

Breast cancer - a growing threat to obese men and women

Talk about breast cancer and naturally, people think of the disease that is the number one cancer among women. But the truth is that breast cancer is on the rise among both women and men, and researchers think the national obesity crisis may be to blame.

With two-thirds of Americans now overweight, we can probably expect more obesity-related cancers. But on the brighter side, weight problems are extremely treatable, even preventable. So to the extent overweight is contributing to cancer, this is one risk factor we may actually have some real control over.

Just how we go about getting that control appears to be critical, though. Even among the most motivated of people, we see that very few are successful in independent efforts to lose weight, even if their life depends on it. And among cancer patients, it clearly does.

Consider some of the numbers: breast cancer in women increased by 52 percent from 1973 to 1998. Part of that increase can be accounted for by better detection, because mammography is much more available than it what 30 years ago. But use of post menopausal estrogen supplements has also become routine, and these have been clearly linked to cancer in women.

But in that same period, incidence of breast cancer among men increased by 26 percent, and that's without the ingested estrogen and without the extra detection offered by mammography, since men typically do not pursue that procedure.

So what else is going on? Experts say the increase in breast cancer in both sexes seems to closely track the increase in American obesity, giving rise to the theory that the obesity crisis may actually be to blame for the boom in breast cancer.

Obesity has been shown to have a clear relationship with some cancers, but not with others. For instance, there does not appear to be any correlation between overweight and prostate cancer in men. Or sometimes, the relation is clear, but the reasons aren't ' t. Hence, researchers are looking at whether acid reflux in overweight people might account for their greater incidence of esophogeal cancer.

But with breast cancer, there is at least one known culprit: all that excess estrogen. Fatty tissue produces estrogen, in both men and women.

Studies of menopausal women make the case most clearly. Before menopause, the ovaries are the primary source of estrogen. But after menopause, when the ovaries have retired from that duty, fatty tissues are the main source of estrogen.

Among postmenopausal women, estrogen levels are 50 to 100 percent higher in heavy women, compared to those of healthy weight. Similar ratios are found among men.

And when estrogen-sensitive tissues get more estrogen exposure, that leads to more growth of estrogen-responsive breast tumors.

Researchers figure that between 11,000 and 18,000 breast cancer deaths per year could be avoided in American women over age 50, if they could maintain a healthy body weight throughout their adult lives. There are no similar guesstimates for men, because while breast cancer is a growing problem for men, there is little research on mortality rates among males, and it is still less of a concern than heart disease or prostate and colon cancer.

But obesity puts men at higher risk for these diseases, as well as the imperative is to drop that excess weight, or at least some of it. There's abundant evidence that even a minor weight loss reaps huge rewards for health. So how you do it?

It's tough, especially if you're on older person, and the average age of diagnosis for breast cancer is 62 among women, and 67 among men.

Motivation counts, but the research shows that it's not enough. People need help. For instance, who would be more motivated to lose weight than a heavy person who had already survived cancer?

On overweight survivor has a double whammy when it comes to risk of recurrence, but a study published earlier this year in obesity research said that even among that motivated group, people left to their own devices, or those who only had a group program did not achieve much weight loss.

This is no surprise to those of US who have treated obesity for years. We see people who have tried diet after diet, joined gym and club and fellowship alike, all to no avail. But when they are treated with a comprehensive diet and lifestyle modification program that has been designed specifically for them, things change.

In this latest study, the researchers were pretty unequivocal, concluding that "for breast cancer survivors to loose weight to reduce risk factors intervention is necessary." "Of the different intervention regimens, individualized counseling combined with attending weekly... meetings which most effective...."

When you're facing a chocolate éclair, death is perhaps too abstract to idea, even if you've only narrowly escaped it. Without some real retraining, even it's hard to equate the greasiest burger with a lethal tumor. But professional support makes all the difference.

For instance, I've been tracking insulin levels in weight management patients for years, because we know that high insulin levels indicate a metabolicsyndrome abnormality that leads to diabetes and weight gain. Now recent research shows that elevated insulin levels are also a risk factor for breast cancer recurrence.

Yet very specific changes in lifestyle and diet can significantly reduce insulin levels in days to weeks, immediately reducing those disease risks. The disembodied threat of disease is sometimes hard for people to get their arms around, but when patients can look at their lab results and see how their behavioral changes directly affect their blood chemistry, it hits home.

What happens to patients' bodies on the inside as they lose weight is more important than the changes they get on the outside, but even at the best health clubs or peer support groups, they won't have an opportunity to see that.

It's inspiring to see how people embrace a fitness and weight-loss program when they have more than just a bathroom scale to tell them that it's working. Consistent and reliable guidance is essential because nobody goes from obese to healthy overnight. It time takes.

But cancer takes time, too, so the race is on. With the proper help, this is a race both men and women have great odds of winning.

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How many will die before the mesothelioma dust settles?

Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Connie Schultz
Plain Dealer Columnist

It happens in large families all the time: Parents organize kids by age and ability and divvy up the chores.

Kati Maloney was the second-oldest daughter of eight, and her job was the laundry. Week after week, she gathered and sorted the clothes in the family's basement on Cleveland's West Side.

Her father's work clothes took extra effort. She'd grab one shirt at a time, turn her head and shake. With every snap, dust particles from asbestos filled the air.

Week after week, Kati breathed in the dust.

Four decades later, Kati couldn't breathe anymore.

Kathleen Maloney LoPresti died at 55 from mesothelioma, the same asbestos-related disease that killed her father and her uncle. Unlike her dad, she never worked directly with the deadly "magic mineral."
But she took good enough care of him for it to kill her anyway.

The question looms: How many more Kati's are there?

"We know the secondary victims of asbestos are out there," said Dr. Pasi Janne, a thoracic oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and one of Kati's doctors. "We don't know how many there are, and we don't know yet if they're mostly women."

It may be getting easier to connect the dots from what we do know.

So far, mostly white, male laborers get mesothelioma, Janne said. They were the guys who got the better-paying, often union, jobs that exposed them to asbestos, which also increased their chances of lung cancer.

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New statistics unveiled by the Health and Safety Executive show an increase in the number of people who have died from mesothelioma.

The figures released this week show more than 2,000 North East people died from the disease from 1985 to 2004. The figure is increased from 1701 deaths from 1981 to 2000.

Additionally the statistics from the Mesothelioma Register show more women than ever are affected by the disease, with 251 deaths during the period compared to 216.

Ian McFall, head of asbestos policy at Thompsons Solicitors, said: "These figures once again highlight the devastation asbestos has inflicted on people in the North East. Many of those affected worked in shipyards, factories or building sites and were given no protection or warning about the risks of asbestos exposure despite their employers being fully aware of the dangers.

"Although shocking, these figures come as no surprise given the widespread use of asbestos in the past. Sadly, the number of people who will die from this disease will continue to rise until 2020."

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