Younger women get lung cancer at higher rates than men — and researchers can’t figure out why.
A report published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology shows that there is a gender difference in lung cancer cases among people 35 to 54, with women being diagnosed at a higher rate.
Although the difference is slim — one or two extra cases per 100,000 women compared to men — researchers at the American Cancer Society believe it’s a big enough discrepancy that it needs to be looked at.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, about 197,000 people are diagnosed each year, and 136,000 die from the disease.
The study found that the higher incidence of lung cancer in women compared to men persisted in those under 50 years of age, as well as extending into middle-aged adults as younger women’s increased risk for lung cancer advanced to older ages. old
The report shows that there is a gender difference in lung cancer cases among people 35 to 54, with women being diagnosed at a higher rate.Getty Images
Researchers are actively trying to find the reason behind the gender difference, as well as the best way to help patients with this knowledge, but there seems to be no direct answer.
Dr. Narjust Florez, a thoracic medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told the New York Times that despite the popular belief that lung cancer occurs most in older men who have smoked for a long time, hundreds of women “die from lung cancer in this country” every day.
Florez added that gender bias in medicine can also affect testing, as women are less likely to be offered tests for lung cancer.
Researchers are actively trying to find the reason behind the gender difference.Getty Images/iStockphoto
“I’ve had women come in with chest tightness and leave the office with Xanax,” he says. “And then when they start coughing up blood, that’s when someone hears them.”
The prevalence and intensity of smoking were not higher in younger women than in men – apart from a slightly higher prevalence for those born in the 1960s.
In addition, the findings show that there is no higher carcinogenic effect of smoking in women than in men, overdiagnosis is unlikely because it occurs in both early and late-stage tumors, and occupational exposures such as asbestos have decreased significantly over the past few decades, said the study. .
“Further research is needed to clarify the reasons for the higher incidence of lung cancer in younger women,” the authors wrote in the paper.
“In the meantime, smoking cessation efforts should be intensified among young and middle-aged women, and lung cancer screening encouraged among eligible women at both the health care professional and community levels.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
