Lung Cancer Rates Among Nonsmokers Not on the Rise
International study debunks some commonly held beliefs about this type of cancer
"We're talking about figures that are right up there with brain cancer in terms of the hard numbers of patients," he noted. "And relative to other cancers, lung cancer research is under-funded. So, the value of this kind of broad effort to better understand the problem is immense."
Dr. Neil Schachter, a professor of pulmonary medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, agreed that the current analysis addresses an important issue, given that the number of nonsmoking lung cancer patients is "small, but obviously significant".
"But though the findings are not that surprising and certainly form an impressive observation, this work needs to be followed up," Schachter cautioned. "For example, with respect to men having a higher death rate, it is important to recognize that men may have more co-morbidities than women. That is, they have more associated diseases. And the fact you have associated diseases may make you more prone to dying from the complications of lung disease. So, there are a lot of factors to consider before coming to any strong conclusions."
More information
For more about lung cancer and risk factors, visit the American Cancer Society.
More from U.S. News
advertisement
