Lung cancer deaths not higher in female nonsmokers
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Contrary to conventional wisdom, female non-smokers are no more likely to die of lung cancer than their male counterparts, according to a large study.
However, researchers found, that non-smoking African-American women may be at greater risk than white women, for reasons that are as yet uncertain.
Smoking is by far the top cause of lung cancer, and by comparison, few non-smokers develop the disease. But there are other factors that raise the odds of lung cancer, including chronic exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos or radon—a radioactive chemical found in the soil and at high levels in some homes.
Many doctors have long believed that non-smoking women are at greater risk than non-smoking men of developing and dying from lung cancer.
But that conventional wisdom is wrong, said Dr. Michael J. Thun of the American Cancer Society (ACS), the lead author of the new study.
Traditionally, he explained in an interview, doctors have seen more non-smoking women than men with the disease. But that’s simply because older women are more likely to be lifelong nonsmokers than older men are—and not because any women have greater risks of lung cancer than men do.
In fact, he and his colleagues found that of the more than 940,000 non-smoking adults enrolled in two ACS research groups, men were actually more likely than women their age to die of lung cancer.
However, African American women with no smoking history were at greater risk than white women. Among women followed between 1982 and 2000, African Americans were 43 percent more likely to die of lung cancer than white females, the study found.
Reporting in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Thun and his colleagues call this finding “novel” but caution that it needs to be confirmed by further research.
There was also some suggestion that non-smoking African American men were at greater risk than were white men, but the finding did not reach statistical significance.
Though it’s not clear why non-smoking African American women, and possibly men, would face a greater risk of lung cancer death, there are several possibilities, according to Thun.
Differences in diet or exposure to cancer-promoting chemicals in the environment could play a role, he said. African Americans also have a higher prevalence of the lung infection tuberculosis, which can raise a person’s risk of lung cancer.
It’s also possible, Thun said, that African American adults are less likely to have the disease detected and treated early on, which would raise their odds of dying.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, May 17, 2006.
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