Lung cancer in women – Does it happen ?
Women’s day all over the world is celebrated on 8 th march every year,
highlighting the significance of a woman. There are many awareness
sessions on most commonly known cancers in women, namely breast and
cervix. Enormous stress is placed on the knowledge, screening, timely
diagnosis and correct treatment of these. Not much is known hence not
much is stressed on lung cancer in women. As per traditional thoughts lung
cancer is a disease affecting only men.
To clear the air, worldwide, lung cancer is the third most common cancer in
women, behind breast and colorectal cancers, and the second leading
cause of female cancer death. In the last 20 years there has been
increased focus on gender differences in health and disease. The earliest
studies of lung cancer enrolled mainly men, as the incidence of lung cancer
among women was exceedingly low. According to the American Lung
Association, lung cancer diagnoses have risen a startling 84% among
women over the past 42 years while dropping 36% among men over the
same period though overall numbers remain steady. In true spirit of
competition, incidence of lung cancer women will be equal to men by 2030.
Tobacco remains the largest risk factor for lung cancer in women. Among
never smokers with lung cancer, women are disproportionately
represented. Worldwide, lung cancer in nonsmokers is the 7 th leading
cause of cancer-related mortality. In Asian populations, 60–80% of women
with lung cancer have never smoked, in contrast to 10–15% of nonsmoking
men.
Women are more susceptible and having more risk of developing Lung
Cancer than men even in similar smoking exposure. Lung cancer in women
has risen in young women and even in non-smokers , supporting the
importance other factors have in lung carcinogenesis in women.
Other significant risk factors for lung cancer in women are secondhand
smoke or otherwise called as passive smoking, wood smoking exposure
especially in developing countries, where wood is used for cooking and
keeping the home warm. cooking oil fumes at high temperatures and air
pollution.
However a considerable percentage of women were not exposed to these
factors. Therefore, it is necessary to identify other etiological factors
associated with Lung cancer in women since up to 50% of cases exhibit
non-smoking association. Researchers all over the world are intent in
solving this mystery.
Presentation of lung cancer is different in women in terms of lower age
group, non smoking habit and presentation at less advanced stage. It is
also noteworthy that women with lung cancer respond differently to
treatments, being more responsive to chemotherapy in those with
adenocarcinoma histology type and for the therapy-based on tyrosine
kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but less sensitive to immunotherapy. They exhibit
greater survival rates regardless of stage, histology, treatment modality or
smoking status, even after adjusting for gender-specific life expectancy.
Nonsmoking status predicts better survival as expected.
On women’s day, I think it’s important for all to realize that lung cancers are
much more common in women and being aware of this is of prime
importance for early diagnosis and better treatment outcomes. Being
aware, abstinence from smoking and regular health checkups are the
pillars of a community effort to reduce the incidence and mortality of lung
cancer in the backbone of the society – a woman.