Lung Cancer Rising in Younger Women, Says New Study: What’s Going On?

“What has been quite conclusively shown is that the DNA repair mechanisms are not as good in women as they are in men,” says Dr. Claudia Henschke of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, who commented on the study for MedPageToday but did not conduct it, “so that may be one of the reasons why lung cancer rates are higher in women. The interesting thing is,” Henschke noted, “women who develop lung cancer do better with treatment, which is encouraging.”

Gender Differences In Lung Cancer

“The study highlights the need to better understand gender differences in lung cancer,” Dr. Brendon Stiles, a surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine, who specializes in lung cancer, told SurvivorNet. In addition, Dr. Stiles notes, “we need further study into risk factors like hormones, family history, and environmental factors.”

But the upshot is clear: "It seems from the study that women may benefit even more [than men] from lung cancer screening," says Dr. Stiles.

RELATED: New Study Finds Vaping Causes the Same Changes to DNA as Smoking Cigarettes

This news also points to the increased recognition that “never-smokers get lung cancer, too," says Stiles who notes that almost a third of the patients he operates on have never smoked. "There's a stigma that inaccurately identifies all lung cancer patients as smokers.”

RELATED VIDEO: Amanda Kouri is a 28-year-old lung cancer survivor; her story serves as a reminder that anyone with lungs can get lung cancer.

Could vaping be driving these numbers?  Stiles says no: “It’s too soon to attribute the rise in this study to vaping.”

Dr. Ronald Natale, director of the Lung Cancer Clinical Research Institute at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, explains how genetic testing determines treatment in lung cancer.

The Good News: Positive Trends in Lung Cancer

Despite this disturbing trend, much in the world of lung cancer – the leading cause of cancer deaths –  is changing fo the better.  Over the past 20 years, changes in prevention, screening, treatment, and attitudes have led to people with lung cancer living longer, healthier lives. Here are the major shifts:

1. More People Are Surviving Lung Cancer
Only about 16% of people diagnosed with lung cancer back in 1999 went on to live another five years, according to the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. This statistic, called the "5-year survival rate," has improved steadily over the past two decades. Today, roughly 22% of people diagnosed with lung cancer go on to live another five years.

RELATED: Take it From a Guy Who Looks at Diseased Lungs Every Day Stop Smoking

2. Fewer People Overall Are Being Diagnosed with Lung Cancer
Over the last two decades, rates of lung cancer diagnoses have steadily declined, according to SEER data. In 1999, there were roughly 66 new cases of lung cancer diagnoses per every 100,000 people. That number is down to about 50.

3. Prevention Has Improved
One of the clearest, most direct reasons for the drop in lung cancer diagnoses has been a national shift away from cigarettes. In 1999, 23.5% of all U.S. adults smoked cigarettes; today, that number is below 14%.

RELATED: Lung Screening With Low Dose CT Should Happen For All

4. New Screening Technologies Have Entered the Game
In addition to the standard chest X-rays long been used to detect lung cancer, imaging tests such as low-dose CT scans have given doctors more detailed images of their patients' lungs, adding another tool to the lifesaving early detection toolbox. Among adults between 55 and 80 with a history of smoking, recent research found that annual screenings with these low-dose CT scans could reduce the lung cancer death rate by up to 20%. That's a major improvement, but it's worth noting that access to these screening tests (and insurance coverage) varies a lot from state to state, and groups like the American Lung Association are pushing for better access.

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