Gerrard Kaonga
More young and seemingly healthy women are being diagnosed with a type of cancer traditionally associated with older men.
Many people still assume cancer mostly impacts the older generation but this isn’t the case.
Global studies have found that there are six types of cancer that are on the rise for those between the ages of 20 and 49.
And now medics are sounding the alarm about a type of cancer that killed 600,000 women in 2022, more than breast, ovarian and cervical cancer combined.
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According to the American Cancer Society, smoking cigarettes remains 'by far' the biggest risk factor for lung cancer, but doctors are saying they're increasingly diagnosing young women with the disease who've never smoked.
In fact, 20 percent of new lung cancer diagnoses come from people who have never touched a cigarette.
Dr. Iona Baiu, a thoracic surgeon at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, told Today: “We’re seeing a shift in trends now and seeing patients who are younger and patients who are never smokers, who we never used to see.”
Dr Narjust Florez, co-director of the Young Lung Cancer Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is also raising serious concerns.
She said: "This is important. This is a real, documented epidemiologic shift that has been going on since 2018 at least, and it’s not anecdotal anymore. I’m the same doctor, in the same clinic, but the patients are getting younger."
She went on to share: "Just last week, a 22-year-old medical student presented with metastatic lung cancer so extensive that I could feel skin lesions during the exam. She had never used tobacco.
"Before that, I saw a 19-year-old who tested EGFR-positive, which means the tumour has a mutation in the EGFR gene, which drives cancer growth. This can be targeted with specific therapies – but she’s 19!"
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men and women, according to the American Cancer Society.
Cases for lung cancer are falling on the whole, likely due to the decline in smoking, with cigarette use falling by 73 percent among American adults since 1965.
However, the rates of lung cancer are falling slower for women than they are for men.
According to some experts, the increase could potentially be attributed to increased radon levels at home, air pollution and genetic mutations, Today reports.
Radon is odorless, colorless radioactive gas that forms when radioactive metals – such as uranium, thorium and radium – break down in rocks, soil and groundwater. People tend to be exposed to it through cracks in their homes or other buildings.
Baiu also emphasized the importance of catching cancer as early as possible as it is more manageable in the early stages.
However, annual screening recommendations often only target patients who smoke or have a history of smoking, meaning noticing the symptoms of lung cancer in non-smokers is more important than ever.
According to the American Cancer Society, some of the most common symptoms include a persistent cough, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, shortness of breath and new onset wheezing, among others.