- Women in their mid-30s are now developing fatal lung
cancer as a result of starting to smoke in their early teens, according
to reports from doctors across the UK.
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- Lung cancer is perceived as an illness of the middle-aged
or elderly but doctors throughout the country are seeing increasing numbers
of women in their 30s or early 40s dying from the disease.
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- Dr Jesme Baird, director of patient care at the Roy Castle
Lung Cancer Foundation, said: "A very worrying trend appears to be
emerging. What we're hearing from lung cancer consultants across the UK
is that the incidence of lung cancer among younger women has been on the
increase over the last couple of years. This is a devastating disease and
the impact that this must be having on these women, the majority of whom
will have young families, is unimaginable."
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- Professor Elaine Rankin, who holds a Cancer Research
UK chair of cancer medicine and is a consultant at Ninewells Hospital in
Dundee, is now treating women in their mid-30s. She says the type of lung
cancer killing these women is slightly different from the illness that
targets older men.
-
- "We see women from their mid-30s onwards. This is
an increasing phenomenon. These women have a slightly different disease.
Older men with lung cancer often have a history of bronchitis and their
cancer comes to light due to repeated chest infections.
-
- "In the younger women, we are seeing the disease
behaving slightly differently. It tends to be more advanced when it comes
to light. That, we think, has something to do with the type of cigarettes
women are smoking. More women smoke low-tar cigarettes. Women tend to be
inhaling deeply smaller particles which travel further in the lungs, towards
the ribs, and that is where they start causing damage."
-
- More women die from lung cancer than breast cancer and
ovarian cancer combined. Lung cancer survival rates are extremely low.
Only 6.4% of women survive five years compared to 77.5% of women with breast
cancer.
-
- Recent research showed that a woman who smokes the same
number of cigarettes as a man is twice as likely to develop lung cancer.
The study from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York suggested that
the key to the double tumour risk lies in men having a greater ability
to detoxify toxins and the presence of the female hormone oestrogen which
is known to help cancers.
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- As the most recent national statistics on lung cancer
are only available from 1999, the increase in younger women dying from
the disease remains anecdotal, but Professor Ray Donnelly, founder and
president of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, is not surprised by
what the charity is hearing from doctors. He says this is due to women
starting smoking at the age of 10 or 11.
-
- "This is a logical consequence of girls starting
to smoke at a much younger age. If we have girls starting to smoke at the
age of 10 to 12 it is not surprising that they develop lung cancer by their
40s.
-
- "I have seen patients in their 30s with lung cancer.
My guess is this is happening because the women coming through started
smoking at 10, 11 or 12.
-
- "In the 50s and 60s women would start smoking in
their 20s or 30s and lung cancer would come through in their 50s or 60s."
-
- Professor Stephen Spiro, of the British Lung Foundation
and University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, has treated a 33-year-old
woman with lung cancer, and regularly sees women dying from the disease
in their 40s. He believes advertising targeted at adolescent girls has
played a part.
-
- A recent study by the Centre for Tobacco Control Research
at Strathclyde University, and the Department of Community Health Sciences
at Edinburgh University, said that youth style magazines contribute to
high levels of smoking among young women. It found that the casual promotion
of smoking in fashion shoots and by personalities carries most influence.
-
- Philip Morris marketed Virginia Slims at women with slogans
such as "You've come a long way, Baby", and "It's a woman's
thing". Critics also claim the brand hinted at the fact that smoking
helps women to lose weight.
-
- "We are now seeing cancers more frequently in younger
women than we used to and this is going to continue until they reduce their
smoking.
-
- "The problem is that the advertising is directed
at girls, with brands such as Virginia Slims. We have got to target teenagers
who smoke. They are the next generation of cancer victims in their 30s,"
Spiro said.
-
- Dr Tariq Sethi, a British Lung Foundation chair and con
sultant at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, added: "There was very aggressive
marketing by cigarette manufacturers targeting women.
-
- "Smoking was seen by women as something their favourite
celebrities did and as a way of keeping their weight down. There is no
doubt that smoking does keep your weight down. Teenage girls also think
smoking gives them an air of sophistication.
-
- "We are now seeing much younger women coming through
with lung cancer for reasons we don't understand. Lung cancer was seen
as an old person's disease but now it is not uncommon for us to see women
in their early 40s."
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- Lung cancer attracts a fraction of the funding awarded
to other forms of the disease. Campaigners believe this is because sufferers,
mostly smokers, are perceived to be responsible for their own illness.
Lung cancer causes 22% of all cancer deaths yet attracts 3% of total research
cash while breast cancer accounts for 8% of cancer deaths but attracts
18% of research money.
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- ©2003 Newsquest (Sunday Herald) Limited. all rights
reserved.
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- http://www.sundayherald.com/38194
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