Jump to content

Young Women and Lung Cancer


ursol

Recommended Posts

To all,

I have been thinking about this alot lately. How do we change the face of lung cancer in the public eye? It's still perceived as the smoking old man's cancer and that is just not the reality of it. We need a celebrity spokesperson to take up this cause, how do we get one?

Could we convince someone like Oprah to dedicate a show to women and lung cancer. I'm sure she has done shows on Breast Cancer? Can we get Lifetime Television to raise awareness?

No offense to all the men with lung cancer..I'm only focusing on women because focusing on women could get us some press and press is what we need to get more funding.

Thanks for letting me ramble on...

Lilly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

learned in the rudest possible manner that lung cancer is in many ways a women's disease now. It kills more than 70,000 women each year in the United States -- that's more than breast, ovarian and uterine cancers combined. And women younger than 40 are at slightly greater risk of developing the disease than men under 40, according to a report from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. Rates of the disease in men have leveled off in the past 25 years, but rates in women have gone up. Women who smoke, a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals, are almost twice as likely to get lung cancer as male smokers. Yet there are no cute pink ribbons, few nationwide walks for a cure and no celebrity spokespeople

Lung cancer will kill approximately 68,510 women in the U.S. this year -- more than breast and ovarian cancer combined. Lung cancer deaths surpassed breast cancer deaths in 1987.

Lung cancer deaths among women skyrocketed about 150% over the last two decades, while the number for men increased by 20%. Between 1950 and 1997, deaths from lung cancer among women increased by more than 600%.

International lung cancer death rates among women vary dramatically, which reflects the historical differences in the adoption of cigarette smoking by women in different countries. In 1990, lung cancer accounted for about 10 percent of all cancer deaths among women worldwide and more than 20 percent of cancer deaths among women in some developed countries.

In 1950, lung cancer accounted for only 3% of all cancer deaths among women; however, by 2000, it accounted for an estimated 25% of cancer deaths--an estimated 1 of every 4 cancer deaths and nearly 1 of every 8 newly diagnosed cancers among women.

Research shows that women are approximately 1.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer than men.

The risk for lung cancer increases with quantity, duration, and intensity of smoking. The risk for dying of lung cancer is 20 times higher among women who smoke two or more packs of cigarettes per day than among women who do not smoke.

Most lung cancer cases are smoking-related (87%). Quitting reduces your lung cancer risk significantly, although former smokers are still at greater risk compared to people who never smoked. Risk declines with the number of years of smoking cessation.

The U.S. Surgeon General reports that in a hospital-based study, the odds for lung cancer were higher among black women than among white women at each level of tar exposure.

In 1996-1997, lung cancer incidence rates among women younger than age 65 were higher among blacks than whites, which suggests that differences between incidence among black women and white women may increase in the future.

Studies, which included more than one million women from four countries, provided data on smoking and the risk for lung cancer among women. All showed significantly higher lung cancer mortality among smokers than among nonsmokers.

Survival rates declined with age at diagnosis and advanced stages but were higher among women than among men at all ages and stages and for all cell types.

The risk for lung cancer mortality increased with the number of cigarettes smoked. Lung cancer risk increased with the number of years of smoking, and this increase was independent of the number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is a cause of lung cancer and coronary heart disease among women who are lifetime nonsmokers.

Recent advances in treatment have increased survival rates and improved the quality of life of patients significantly.

Thanks to new treatments, the cure rate for lung cancer has doubled over the last 30 years.

DOES THIS HELP YOUR ARGUMENT ANY???? Just thought I would throw it out there. Lung Cancer is the Breast Cancer of the New millenium. THe political stigmatism of smoking is what keeps thiss fact in the shadows while other Cancers are brought to the fore front because of Sympathy factors. I need to get off my soapbox now. Have a great weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As flattered as I may be and I am, I am not an Oprah Fan. If she can spend so much money on so many housewives, Whay can she not do something for those more deseving of financial assistance in this world. I find it apalling that she can buy 274 new cars for women rather than donate that money to a worthy cause and I know she does support various charities. I would like to Defer that Nomination To Our own Hebbie who so eloquently handled Readers Digest interviews. Still flattered though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem is as long as they (the Government) and others (Doctors) continue to put the smoking face on lung cancer many people are not going to listen. Spokespersons for lung cancer need to be the women and men who have never smoked, or they need to show that cancers are all caused by genetics and the environment just helps it along. Otherwise how do you explain lung cancer hitting some people who smoke and not everyone who does?

Ralph

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ralph is 120% right. Not to mention over the last 7 years I can't tell you how many of us had/have written to Oprah and other talk shows trying to bring Awareness to Lung Cancer. But the best spokes-person for that job would be a Lung Cancer Survivor, and one that never smoked or was ever raised around smoke. :roll: Sadly enough we have to play the game and that's how it has to be played.

It's always a good idea to try and figure out ways to bring Awareness to Lung Cancer and to do it so it's NOT a smokers disease, but it's a very hard task to do. But, we never say never and maybe someone will get the word out and maybe someone IMPORTANT will believe us and hear us and do something about it! There's always HOPE!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to be bothered by the pink ribbons too until someone here pointed out that ALL cancer research benefits lung cancer patients as well. And many of us here may someday be touched by breast cancer or love someone who has and hopefully will find comfort in the sea of pink ribbons. We just need to find a way to get just as many white ribbons out there too! I've often thought about the Oprah route as she reaches so many people. And Randy - Oprah gave those cars to teachers who are underpaid and can use all the perks they can get. I think she is very generous with her funds and I think she likes to get behind worthy causes. Maybe we need to educate her and ask her to join the fight. I think maybe the best way to reach her is by having EVERYONE here write a letter and explain how this has affected their lives and how the public needs to be educated.

Karen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.