The traditional data showing more males than females develop lung cancer have been clearly reversed in non-Hispanic whites in the USA and the data cannot be explained by altered smoking behaviours alone say researchers (1).
In certain age groups more women than men are being diagnosed with lung cancer, yet they do not have higher rates of smoking according to the research, which was funded by the American Cancer Society.
Overall, the age-specific incidence of lung cancer has decreased amongst both men and women between the ages of 30 to 54, with the decline among men being more marked.
Meanwhile, cigarette smoking amongst women born since 1965 has risen but not exceeded rates of male smokers.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founder of CANCERactive said, “We have reported previous studies showing that there is a susceptibility link to the X chromosome and women are XX to men XY, then Canadian research showed the growth in adenocarcinoma NSCLC in young women non-smokers – smokers tend to be more linked with squamous NSCLC. EGFR plays a part and there are oestrogen links to this. Then there seems also to be a xenoestrogen factor from environmental toxins that no one wants to talk about. It’s all in the research we have covered in Cancer Watch, if people want to understand the issues more clearly. The overall growth of lung cancer, and its link to non-smoking factors, makes a mockery of the simplistic cancer prevention approach of get people to give up smoking and cancer rates will fall.”
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