Women's health
Lung cancer in womenUnfortunately, women saw cigarette smoking as part as their 'emancipation' and freedom fight, and they are now paying the price for it. Lung cancer mortality rates in women have dramatically increased since 1950, and are now the leading cause of cancer death among American women, surpassing breast cancer. Lung cancer appears to behave differently in men and women and several studies have reported sex differences in the clinical presentation, histology and outcome of lung cancer. Women have better survival rates than men regardless of stage, histology or therapy. In women, tobacco smoking explains only 70% of the incidence. Moreover, even if smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer, the reported duration and amount smoked is generally lower than in men with equivalent disease. Large case-control analyses, in fact, have found a higher risk for lung cancer development in women compared with men with similar cigarette pack-year exposure.
Among the major risk factors, cigarette smoking was found to be strongly associated with squamous cell and small cell carcinoma, but less strongly with adenocarcinomas. Some studies indicated that several factors, such as saturated fat intake, familial tumour history, previous lung diseases, specific occupational exposure, cooking practices (inhaling smoke from fire) and genetic susceptibility are correlated with an elevated risk of adenocarcinoma, which is the most frequent type of cancer found in women. The good news is that a chemotherapeutic agent that potentially utilises sex differences in metabolism, namely paclitaxel poliglumes (PPX), is currently under development. The metabolism of this drug is modulated by oestrogen. |
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