MILWAUKEE, August 10, 2005
Non-Smokers With Lung Cancer
Like Dana Reeve, Many Patients Don't Have The Habit
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(AP / CBS)
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"People would say, 'I didn't know he smoked,"' he said.
His foundation's Web site even acknowledges this trend, by stating that more than half of people newly diagnosed with lung cancer each year have either never smoked or quit smoking.
Doctors who treat the disease, like Dr. Bruce Johnson of Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston, bristle at the notion of "innocent" and "not so innocent" victims.
"People who smoke don't deserve to get lung cancer, and people have worked very hard to quit," he said.
Non-smokers who have surgery for their cancer have a lower risk of developing a second tumor than smokers. Also, smokers who quit after cancer surgery have better survival odds, he noted.
Non-smokers also respond better to Iressa and Tarceva, said Dr. Alan Sandler, director of thoracic oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, who has been involved in testing these new-generation drugs that more precisely attack the molecular factors making these cancers grow.
"The malignant cell in a smoker is much more complex" and has more mutations than non-smokers tend to have, Sandler said.
Researchers now are studying whether non-smokers do better in general on chemotherapy than smokers, he said.
Meanwhile, the Cancer Society is hoping for an eventual decline in lung cancer cases to mirror the decline in smoking rates.
"Cigarette consumption is down where it was at the start of World War II. About 1 in 5 people are current smokers," Thun said.
"Lung cancer death rates have fallen 17 percent in men from 1990 to 2002. Both incidence and death rates have leveled off in women, so we are turning the corner."
As for stigma, he would rather see it on those who sell cigarettes than those who use them.
"If there's blame to go around, most of the blame falls on the tobacco companies," Thun said.
By Marilynn Marchione ©MMV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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