Lung Cancer Rates Among Women Are Falling Much Slower Than Those in Men. Here ’s Why

Gina Hollenbeck said she did “everything right.” The Tennessee nurse and mother of two avoided cigarettes all her life. She ate organic food. She ran half marathons and played competitive tennis. But in 2015, she developed a persistent cough and rapidly lost weight. She didn’t have a primary-care doctor, so she consulted several specialists. For months, none could identify what was wrong. Finally, she paid out of pocket for chest X-rays and took them to an emergency room, where she was referred to a pulmonologist who diagnosed her with advanced lung cancer. “I was like, ‘This is a cruel joke,'” says Hollenbeck, who is now 42 and still not in remission. “Everybody kept saying, ‘There’s no way that you could possibly have lung cancer.'” Hollenbeck represents a worrying caveat to what is otherwise a great success for the U.S. medical system. Overall lung-cancer rates have fallen significantly in recent decades–but women, who have traditionally smoked less than men and thus developed and died from lung cancer less often, now account for a disproportionately high number of diagnoses. Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer in the U.S. But mortality rates have been falling for decades, driven by medical advances and historic decreases in cigarette smoking. The benefits, however, have not been shared equally. What was historically a men’s disease is now disproportionately affecting women. A 2018 study in th...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Cancer Source Type: news