Posted Nov 19, 2006 at 09:01PM by Chris L. Listed in: Diseases Tags: Stanford University, Dr. Heather Wakelee
Ó

TAKE A GOOD, CLOSE LOOK. THAT'S LUNG CANCER.Life really is unfair. Some 20,000 people a year with lung cancer, and they've never even tasted the butt of a cigarette. Even more unfair: no one knows why (and it's probably beyond second-hand smoke...).

That's the observation reported in the San Francisco Chronicle late last week, in a survey of oncologists detailed to research on incidences of lung cancer. There's also another layer of unfairness laid onto the story: "women are particularly at risk" of contracting lung cancer, even in the absence of cigarette smoke.

This observation is quite stark in Asian countries, where very few women smoke, observes Stanford University School of Medicine's Dr. Heather Wakelee. For example, about a third of lung cancer cases in Singapore are in nonsmokers, "and most of those are women".

Current research into lung cancer in both women and nonsmokers is relatively new, which means there's no hard data or firm theories to explain this. Aside from the decried culprit, second-hand smoke, other potential causes of nonsmoker lung cancer include industrial chemicals, environmental pollutants, radon gas, and possibly cell proteins that mutate and increase the risk of lung cancer.

There we go: lung cancer doesn't only come from cigarettes. This writer doesn't light up, although he does hang with smokers - but he's almost just at risk of getting lung cancer as the next guy smoking.


[Via SFGate.com] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

Bookmark / Find this article on:

1 Comments


Sort by:
   by Advertising -
   by dan (Unregistered) - 2006-11-23
 » You gotta die sometime.

I'm 44 a non smoker and non toker. Ran a local marathon for last five years and now in my 11th month of stage 4 (the terminal kind) lung cancer diagnosis. I expect to eek out another five or six months if I am lucky. There is certainly something in the air or environment. I eat fairly well and except for a few too many beers at Shriner events, I really have no bad vices. If I knew I was going to get this horrrible cancer I might have really picked up on more southern fried foods...at least a heart attack is quick.



QJ.NET Blog Network RSS Feeds
MyQJ Feed / PDA
MyQJ RSS / PDA
Blog of Blogs Feed / PDA
QJ.NET RSS / PDA
Gaming Consoles Feed / PDA
Nintendo DS RSS / PDA
PlayStation 3 RSS / PDA
PSP Updates RSS / PDA
Wii RSS / PDA
Xbox 360 RSS / PDA
PC Gaming Feed / PDA
Age of Conan RSS / PDA
Games for Windows RSS / PDA
MMORPG RSS / PDA
Tabula Rasa RSS / PDA
World of Warcraft RSS / PDA
Science Feed / PDA
Science RSS / PDA
Technology Feed / PDA
Apple RSS / PDA
Gadgets RSS / PDA
iPhone RSS / PDA
Mobile RSS / PDA
Photography RSS / PDA
Tech RSS / PDA
Add QJ.NET
Add to My Yahoo!
Google Reader Subscribe with Bloglines
Add  to your Kinja digest Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Pluck RSS reader Add 'www.qj.net' to Newsburst from CNET News.com
Subscribe with SearchFox RSS del.icio.us www.qj.net
Add to Technorati Favorite! Add to My AOL
furl! it Stumble for Treehugger!
User Favorites - October
Most Commented
No commented articles
User Favorites - October
Top Jumps
No available articles using criteria

 Username: 
 Password:
Forgot password
New user registration



Poll
Are unidentified flying objects (UFOs) really alien spaceships?
Earth Science
General Science
Health Science
Space
Archives