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[J.C.]

Lisa,

you got a lot of answers, all I can say is that

for me cancer is related in a big way to the immune system

and usually strike at a time when that system is depleted.

My husband died from lung cancer, and no reason for it,

I got glycogen-rich breast cancer and no reason for it as

I am at the present time the only one on earth with it,

(recorded and alive) so no treatment, just bad luck after 9 months

of allergies.

J.C.

[patut]

Hi Lisa. My husband is 66 years old, smoked for 43 years and quit one year before he was diagnosed. He tell me he thinks "he knows what he did to himself". I must add though that several in his family had various types of cancers.

C.

[SJAS]

Hi Lisa,

I get such little time on the board these days, that I don't even have time to read all the responses. So please excuse me if I'm bringing up old news. I have strong suspicions about genetic predispostion and stress. I saw at least one research article saying that men especially are prone to develop a life-threatening illness within 2 years of a major stressor, particulary career-related. My husband was dx almost 2 years to the day of being laid off from his job. His father died from lc, yet his older brother and sister, who are both adopted, were heavy smokers until a couple of years ago and they do not have lc. My husband never smoked, and worked in a corporate environment his whole career.

[kimblanchard]

My mom was 59 years old when she died from Lung cancer (NSCLC Stage IV at diagnoses)......anyway, she was a smoker for over 40 years, started when she was a teenager. So a very long time!! She had a sister die at age 50 of Lung cancer, she was also a smoker (So, this puts into question rather or not its genetic). My Mom had another sister die in her 60's, they had found early stage lung cancer during her other health problems, she died from another cause (congestive heart failure I think). So with this in mind, I lean towards believing there is a DNA link somewhere, but they all were smokers, so maybe a combination of both factors. My Mom's parents lived well into their 80's and never had any type of cancer!! (and they were around tons of second hand smoke from all their children), its all a real mystery. My Dad is now 60, and also was a smoker for most of his life (I think hes cut way back now), hes fine with no signs of lung cancer (Thank God!). Im 35 and lived with my parents of course til I was 23 (when I got married), so being around all the second hand smoke worries me, especially if their is a DNA link. I try not to worry myself into sickness, but its hard not to. Its all I think about really. I cant come up with a rhyme or reason, wish I could, and I do TRULY PRAY someday there is a cure or at least figuring out, like you said more underlying causes and prevention steps!! [/b]

[BoBennett]

Good for you, hunting for reasons. As you have seen everyone has a different take on it. Don’t let anyone discourage you by telling you, you are wasting your time or are blaming anything or anyone.

I believe that smoking, foundries, oilfield, carcinogens and a host of others, are most likely contributing factors, some that obviously are connected more than others.

As for why do some not get cancer that are involved in such environments. I personally believe it comes down to personal health and dietary habits. But that is just a personal opinion based on my research and position.

I personally believe that genetics plays a part but genetics coupled with bad habits are a greater contributor to cancer. I personally believe that if you accept genetics as cause you accept that you are less likely try to change the outcome, why try if something you didn’t aid caused the problem.

Don’t let statistics cloud issues, Possible only 15% of smokers get lung cancer, but possibly 85% lung cancer victims are or were former smokers. That doesn’t answer why some non smokers get lung cancer.

These kinds of questions and responses are debated passionately by some and that makes discussion difficult but the whole thing is difficult.

Good Luck in You Fight.

Bo

[melaniem]

i'm new to the board but i'd like to share my thoughts. i smoked less than 1/2 pack a day since i was 17, i am 37 and have lc. i rarely smoked during the day, mostly in the evening out on porch, i always believed i would never get lung cancer b/c i didn't smoke enough. ha! here's a thought. i read that the early beginning stages of cancer begins nearly 20 years before it is dx. if that's the case i would have been 17....that's when i smoked the first one! bo was dx 18 years after he STOPPED smoking. i vote genetics more than anything and even saying that, i am just beginning to let go of the guilt/shame i feel. here's my background:

my dad smoked, i live in what's hailed as "The BBQ capital of Texas", i am a hairdresser , i smoked, and i took radio-active iodine for hyperthyroidism. WOW! and yet i know others who's lists would be longer than that and they don't have lc. NO ONE in my family has ever had lc. one aunt had stomach cancer. (and i have a huge family, 13 kids on my dad's side, 5 on my moms). both grandpa's smoked, both died in mid 70's of heart attacks. all my aunts/uncles smoked. some still do. no cancer. so i don't know what to make of it.

i am home recovering from lobectomy and will begin chemo in a month or so. i am struggling with what to do about my job. i work as a hairstylist, i have a large clientele, very successful. i specialize in color. i have been doing some on-line research about cancer and hairdressers and have found high cancer mortality rates among those in this field. after going through what i have so far, with still a long road ahead of me, i wouldn't want to jeopardize it by going right back into something toxic. i believe that smoking was a large part, but so was genetics, and my breathing in fumes all day, and everything else that has been covered on this topic. it's just that 'doing hair' is my livelihood, and my clients are like an extended family but yet even saying that i keep having this nagging voice tell me "but do you want to live?" i guess i really do know the answer. thoughts from anyone????

[Elaine]

Wow Melanie,

There are several others on here who were treated for thyroid. I think it's too many to be called a coincidence!

[Elaine]

Wow Melanie,

There are several others on here who were treated for thyroid. I think it's too many to be called a coincidence!

As far as the fumes, I also think that the fumes combined with the smoking, the thyroid treatmen and perhaps genetics and of course bad luck can all be a factor.

I don't know what I would do, Melanie. But I pray you find the best answer for you!

love and fortitude

elaine

[Donna G]

Wow, what a long ribbon. First let me say that I was hyperthyroid at diagnosis, that was the first thing the doctors wanted to treat!. They gave me a high dose to wipe out my thyroid for with the increased metabolism, the tumor was growing even faster.

I agree with all of the above add to the reason cancer starts to develop. I don't think it is a simple thing. After going to the lung cancer consortium meetings here in the twin cities, I am learning the cell is unbelievably complex, not as simple as you may have learned in school. It is so totally amazing, it is hard for me to fathom that any being happened by chance as the theories that are going around say.

I believe my God does not cause bad things. In his perfection, he allows for good and bad . He does have the power and the will to make good from bad. It is our choice to accept his help.

It sounds to me with this group we have a lot of potential to start the ball rolling. Theresa with her Doctorate and her talents in research, Lisa , with your experience with questionaires. Snowflake, having participated in a questioaire. Dr Joe, his knowledge of research , treatment . So many others who have spent time looking up all the different irritants that we are exposed to and breath. ( by the was I grew up in a major city, living in a major city more than 10 yrs is a risk) Exposure to deisel fumes , which are 300 times more poluting than gas engines is a risk. Many of us see genetics as a risk as we have multiple family members afflicted. Many studies are out now that certain vegetables protect us from the cancerous changes. Even some medicines that are antiinflamatory may decrease changes. I believe even an ace inhibiltor med decrease risk. How are some people seemingly cured by Heparin?

Perhaps we should put our heads together.

Rick may be able to give us another spot on the site to have a questionairre, to answer here or to print off for us to ditribute to our local cancer treatment center. Perhaps MD Anderson would like our help collectiing data, a link or something.

Anyone have any other ideas. ? Donna G

[BoBennett]

What a coincidence today I received remarks from two different people about what I have written in my information profile and they both made presumptuous remarks about such comments.

I would prefer that my personal profile be just that and not used to further someone’s lame adgena in a response or thoughts on their opinion.

If anyone would like to start a thread about the pros and cons of smoking and it contribution to lung cancer I would love to participate.

I understand I would be in the minority as I would take the cons side

Bo

[TAnn]

Well, this thread is getting longer and longer. I'll try to keep my response short. I am getting treated at MD Anderson and also participated in the survey that Snowflake talked about. I also volunteered for this to be an ongoing study, as they will randomly take blood from me while being treated there. I hope they can come up with some common factors with these surveys, but the truth is does anyone really know what causes ANY type of cancer. How many times do you watch the news and hear new theories, "eat the crust of the bread, it can prevent cancer", "drink coffee", "don't drink coffee" ..........

I think one of the most asked questions to me when I tell someone that I have lung cancer (after "do you smoke") is HOW? I tell them that we will never know, environmental, mutant genes, hormones, the list goes on and on. It seems to me that some people have the "make up" to get it and some do not. No one in my family, as far back as we can trace, has had lung cancer. I am the first.

Well, it turned out to be a longer post than I thought. Thanks for listening.

TAnn

[melaniem]

bo, my apologies to you if i offended you. i only read in your profile that you hadn't smoked in 18 years, which added to my question of why would someone get lc after all that time? the info i've always read is that a persons cancer risk goes down to that of a non-smoker somewhere after 10 years of quitting smoking. ????

i do not have an agenda, only lots of questions as i try to make sense of something that is senseless.

melanie

[kimblanchard]

Unfortunately, that's not quite true melanie. Even 20 years after quitting smoking, the risk of lung cancer is about 4 times higher for an ex-smoker than a never smoker. Also, for the first 5 years after quitting smoking, the risk of lung cancer increases a little higher than if a person had continued to smoke. Obviously not a statistic that the medical community is eager to spread....

[Elaine]

I had never heard that statistic about those who quit having an increased risk for the first five years. Wow! I quit unsuccessfully several times in the last five years--sometimes for long periods, and smoked way less when I did smoke. The thing I had noticed is that having never coughed, once I quit and cut down, I began to cough.

Oddly enough, since DX, I don't cough more than a couple of throat clearing coughs a day. One reason my DX was delayed is that I had a bad cough last fall, that worried me. Our family was reeling from the sudden death of my sister in law, so I told myself just to wait until after Thanksgiving to go to the Dr. My cough disappeared. So I thought might as well wait until after Christmas. .....

[Eileen]

Hi Elaine---I actually brought up this fact awhile ago---(do a search under my name and you will find the thread) that the chances of getting lung cancer actually increase a little after quitting smoking

a couple of theories (and strictly theories)

1. There are more and more people quitting than ever before---chances are they may have come down with lung cancer anyway?

2. You go through some kind of genetic changes activating dormant cancer cells (ok onc doc, please don't laugh at me for my layman theories)

anyone else have any thoughts on why this would be?

regards

[Hebbie]

Melanie Wrote:

i took radio-active iodine for hyperthyroidism.

We have touched on this a few times in the past. There are SEVERAL of us treated for hyperthyroidism with LC now......of course -- the question is, is the hyperthyroidism itself a contributing factor here, or is it the treatment with Radio-active Iodine???????

[Elaine]

It reminds me of the recent posts in the Joke forum--about chickens and eggs.

But seriously, I wonder too. I have never been treated for the condition, but have had symptoms all my adult life. Drs always thought I had either hyper and then thought I had hyp--so I would be tested and then the results would come up normal. I have since found out that the tests do not catch quite a few people who actually ha ve a thryroid disorder.

To this day, I can't say that I do, but that I have had symptoms and a very low normal body temperature, which it is coming to be known is just about indicative of a thyroid condition.

I have also read that a low body temp can cause people to be more susceptable to cancer because the body is not warm enough for cells to do what they need to do--(not a very good medical description ) -

I am wondering if anyone else has ever noticed that their body temperature is low==chronically low prior to DX.

elaine