Nonsmokers can be cancer victims, too :: essays research papers

Like Reeve, widow of "Superman" star Christopher Reeve, 1 in 5 women diagnosed with the disease never lit a cigarette, doctors say. besides they share an unfortunate stigma with pubic louse patients who smoked."The underlying assumption is, you were a smoker and you caused this, therefore youre not going to get my sympathy," utter gobbler Labrecque Jr., who started a foundation to raise awareness after his nonsmoker contract pass alongd several years ago of the disease.No one "deserves" lung malignant neoplastic disease, doctors say. But nonsmokers do have one silver lining They respond better to the newest targeted cancer drugs alike(p) Iressa and Tarceva.Thats because citizenry who get lung cancer early in life, like the 44-year-old Reeve, are more likely to have genetic factors fueling their disease, doctors say. scarcely 3 percent of lung cancers occur in people under 45, regardless of smoking status.Reeve, an actress who leads a paralysis rese arch foundation named for her husband who died withstand year, disclosed Tuesday that she was being treated for lung cancer but gave no elaborate on how or where.Her announcement came two days after first rudiment News anchor Peter Jennings, a smoker, died of lung cancer at get on with 67.Despite their different smoking histories, they share the most common cancer in the world, and the deadliest. This year in the United States, an estimated 93,010 men and 79,560 women will be diagnosed with lung cancer and almost an equal number -- 90,490 men and 73,020 women -- will die of it.About 10 percent of men and 20 percent of women with lung cancer never smoked, and the number of nonsmokers with the disease doesnt seem to be rising significantly, verbalize Dr. Michael Thun, chief epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society.But awareness may be on the rise because of the aggressive anti-smoking campaigns in recent years. And stigma may be rising, too."When people get breast canc er, people say, What can I do to help you? When people get lung cancer, people say, Did you smoke?" said Susan Mantel, executive director of Joans Legacy, a fund-raising group named for Joan Scarangello, a nonsmoker and former(prenominal) head writer for newsman Tom Brokaw. Scarangello died in 2001 of lung cancer, as did her nonsmoking stupefy before her."There is a definite stigma," said Labrecque, recalling comments after the funeral for his father, a former chairman of Chase Manhattan Corp."People would say, I didnt know he smoked," he said.His foundations Web site even acknowledges this trend, by stating that more than half of people newly diagnosed with lung cancer each year have either never smoked or quit smoking.