Quelle:
Presse-Information
Fachblatt Cancer 24.11.2003
Immer
mehr relativ junge Frauen sterben an Lungenkrebs.
Die
Ursache scheint klar zu sein: seit etwa zwei Jahrzehnten
beginnen Mädchen aufgrund der gezielten Zigarettenwerbung
bereits vor der Pubertät zu rauchen und haben daher
noch kleine Kinder, wenn ihr weit fortgeschrittener Lungenkrebs
entdeckt wird. Sie sterben dann innerhalb kurzer Zeit.
Obgleich
mehr Frauen an Lungenkrebs sterben als an Brustkrebs und
Eierstockkrebs zusammengenommen, wird in die Erforschung
dieses Leidens vergleichsweise wenig Geld investiert. Der
Anteil an den Krebstodesfällen liegt bei 22%, während
auf Brustkrebs nur 8% der Todesfälle entfallen. Während
für die Erforschung des Brustkrebs beispielsweise in
Großbritannien 18% der Forschungsmittel ausgegeben
werden, liegt dieser Anteil beim Lungenkrebs lediglich bei
3%. Diese erstaunliche Diskrepanz wird von den Experten
mit der Tatsache erklärt, dass sich die Öffentlichkeit
der Tatsache bewusst ist, dass die meisten Lungenkrebs-Patienten
selbst schuld an ihrem Leiden sind.
Auch
heute noch sind die Heilungsaussichten bei Lungenkrebs sehr
schlecht. Nur 6% der Lungenkrebs-Patienten überleben
fünf Jahre, während es bei Brustkrebs etwa 76%
sind. Auffällig ist, dass das Lungenkrebsrisiko bei
Frauen - bei gleich hohem Zigarettenkonsum - rund doppelt
so hoch ist wie bei Männern. Die erkrankten Frauen
sterben auch schneller als die Männer, da ihr Krebs
meist in einem späteren Stadium entdeckt wird. Dies
führen Krebsspezialisten auf die Tatsache zurück,
dass Frauen eher Zigaretten mit niedrigem Teergehalt rauchen.
Diese oft speziell für Frauen entwickelten Zigaretten
verführen zu einem unterschiedlichen Rauchverhalten.
Die Frauen inhalieren den Rauch tiefer und schädigen
daher andere Teile der Bronchien und des Lungengewebes.
Bei den Männern werden die Tumore aufgrund häufiger
Bronchitiserkrankungen früher entdeckt und lassen sich
daher besser behandeln.
Lung cancer deaths surging among young female smokers
Tobacco advertising directed at girls blamed for alarming
rise of disease thats now killing women smokers in their
30s
Women
in their mid-30s are now developing fatal lung cancer as
a result of starting to smoke in their early teens, according
to reports from doctors across the UK.
Lung
cancer is perceived as an illness of the middle-aged or
elderly but doctors throughout the country are seeing increasing
numbers of women in their 30s or early 40s dying from the
disease.
Dr
Jesme Baird, director of patient care at the Roy Castle
Lung Cancer Foundation, said: A very worrying trend appears
to be emerging. What were hearing from lung cancer consultants
across the UK is that the incidence of lung cancer among
younger women has been on the increase over the last couple
of years. This is a devastating disease and the impact that
this must be having on these women, the majority of whom
will have young families, is unimaginable.
Professor
Elaine Rankin, who holds a Cancer Research UK chair of cancer
medicine and is a consultant at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee,
is now treating women in their mid-30s. She says the type
of lung cancer killing these women is slightly different
from the illness that targets older men.
We
see women from their mid-30s onwards. This is an increasing
phenomenon. These women have a slightly different disease.
Older men with lung cancer often have a history of bronchitis
and their cancer comes to light due to repeated chest infections.
In
the younger women, we are seeing the disease behaving slightly
differently. It tends to be more advanced when it comes
to light. That, we think, has something to do with the type
of cigarettes women are smoking. More women smoke low-tar
cigarettes. Women tend to be inhaling deeply smaller particles
which travel further in the lungs, towards the ribs, and
that is where they start causing damage.
More
women die from lung cancer than breast cancer and ovarian
cancer combined. Lung cancer survival rates are extremely
low. Only 6.4% of women survive five years compared to 77.5%
of women with breast cancer.
Recent
research showed that a woman who smokes the same number
of cigarettes as a man is twice as likely to develop lung
cancer. The study from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in
New York suggested that the key to the double tumour risk
lies in men having a greater ability to detoxify toxins
and the presence of the female hormone oestrogen which is
known to help cancers.
As
the most recent national statistics on lung cancer are only
available from 1999, the increase in younger women dying
from the disease remains anecdotal, but Professor Ray Donnelly,
founder and president of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation,
is not surprised by what the charity is hearing from doctors.
He says this is due to women starting smoking at the age
of 10 or 11.
This
is a logical consequence of girls starting to smoke at a
much younger age. If we have girls starting to smoke at
the age of 10 to 12 it is not surprising that they develop
lung cancer by their 40s.
I
have seen patients in their 30s with lung cancer. My guess
is this is happening because the women coming through started
smoking at 10, 11 or 12.
In
the 50s and 60s women would start smoking in their 20s or
30s and lung cancer would come through in their 50s or 60s.
Professor
Stephen Spiro, of the British Lung Foundation and University
College London Hospitals NHS Trust, has treated a 33-year-old
woman with lung cancer, and regularly sees women dying from
the disease in their 40s. He believes advertising targeted
at adolescent girls has played a part.
A
recent study by the Centre for Tobacco Control Research
at Strathclyde University, and the Department of Community
Health Sciences at Edinburgh University, said that youth
style magazines contribute to high levels of smoking among
young women. It found that the casual promotion of smoking
in fashion shoots and by personalities carries most influence.
Philip
Morris marketed Virginia Slims at women with slogans such
as Youve come a long way, Baby, and Its a womans thing.
Critics also claim the brand hinted at the fact that smoking
helps women to lose weight.
We
are now seeing cancers more frequently in younger women
than we used to and this is going to continue until they
reduce their smoking.
The
problem is that the advertising is directed at girls, with
brands such as Virginia Slims. We have got to target teenagers
who smoke. They are the next generation of cancer victims
in their 30s, Spiro said.
Dr
Tariq Sethi, a British Lung Foundation chair and consultant
at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, added: There was very aggressive
marketing by cigarette manufacturers targeting women.
Smoking
was seen by women as something their favourite celebrities
did and as a way of keeping their weight down. There is
no doubt that smoking does keep your weight down. Teenage
girls also think smoking gives them an air of sophistication.
We
are now seeing much younger women coming through with lung
cancer for reasons we dont understand. Lung cancer was seen
as an old persons disease but now it is not uncommon for
us to see women in their early 40s.
Lung
cancer attracts a fraction of the funding awarded to other
forms of the disease. Campaigners believe this is because
sufferers, mostly smokers, are perceived to be responsible
for their own illness. Lung cancer causes 22% of all cancer
deaths yet attracts 3% of total research cash while breast
cancer accounts for 8% of cancer deaths but attracts 18%
of research money.
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