NEPA Vital Signs - Winter Spring 2018 - 18

L ACKMEDSOC.ORG

LUZERNEMEDSOC.ORG

Feature

[ Myth or Fact? ]
One needs to be exposed to tobacco products to develop lung cancer - Myth or Fact?

[ MYTH. The main risk factor for developing lung cancer is having lungs! ]
Lung cancer kills 160,000 Americans per year, which is more than the next four killer
cancers (breast, colon, prostate, and pancreas) COMBINED - Myth or Fact?

[ FACT ]
The fastest growing demographic of lung cancer patients is in never smoked women - Myth or Fact?

[ FACT ]

hope these facts and the one listed
myth attract your attention. Let's add
that in 1972 when war was declared
on cancer lung cancer was essentially
forgotten. The 5 year mortality for lung
cancer in 1972 was around 15%; it is currently around 18% (15% for men and 21%
for women).1 The reason the mortality
has not improved is because lung cancer
receives the lowest amount of research
money among the killer cancers. Breast
cancer has received the greatest funding
and as a result the 5 year mortality has
remarkably improved to 90%. 1 So why
is the funding and research financial

1
2
3
4

allotment so low? Perhaps it is due to the
stigma attached to lung cancer - which
is related to the myth in the very first
statement of this article.
Let's look at the relationship between
tobacco (smoking cigarettes) and lung
cancer. In the 1920s it was noted that
there was a possible link between smoking tobacco and lung tumors.2 By the mid
1950s tobacco companies knew that their
product was dangerous but, kept that
knowledge private.2 It wasn't until 1964
that the Surgeon General of the US pronounced cigarette smoking as a cause of

lung cancer. (The history of tobacco and
lung cancer is very interesting and can be
found in the referenced article from the
British Medical Journal.) Understanding
that there is a the risk of lung cancer from
cigarette smoke and also from second hand
smoke is something that no one will argue.
However, have we not all known someone
who smoked 1 or more packs of cigarettes
per day for their entire life and lived to
80 or 90? Why the disconnect? Why can
some people smoke cigarettes for many
years and others only be exposed to second hand smoke and develop lung cancer?
Honestly, we don't know the answer to

ASCO. Cancer.Net. https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types
BMJ Journals. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87
Quest Diagnostics. Lung Cancer Mutation Panel (EGFR, KRAS, ALK). http://www.questdiagnostics.com/testcenter/testguide.action%3Fdc%3DTS_LungCancerMutation_Panel
Residential Radon Appears to Prevent Lung Cancer. B. Scott. Dose Response. 2011; 9(4): 444-464. Published online 2011 Oct 14. doi: 10.2203/dose-response.11-027.Scott (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
articles/PMC3315166/ )

N E PA

VITAL SIGNS

http://www.lackmedsoc.org http://www.LUZERNEMEDSOC.ORG https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/87 http://www.questdiagnostics.com/testcenter/testguide.action%3Fdc%3DTS_LungCancerMutation_Panel https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

NEPA Vital Signs - Winter Spring 2018

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