In France, lung and bronchial cancer do not only affect smokers, according to the results of a study presented at the congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. More and more non-smokers are suffering from bronchopulmonary cancer. Passive smoking would be involved.
This study was carried out by 104 French hospitals and on all patients suffering from bronchopulmonary canceradmitted to the services in 2010, ie 7,051 cases.
Non-smokers increasingly affected by lung cancer
The results of the study reveal that 762 cancer patients, (11% of those admitted) had never smoked. Of these, 158 (20%) said they had been subjected to passive smoking. “These non-smoking patients are older than the average patient suffering from the same pathology. Their case is often severe (bone metastases) because the first symptoms, in people who did not seem to present any risk factors, were underestimated. A cough persisting beyond three weeks, the first coughing up blood should alert ”, explains Dr. Coëtmeur to the site Pourquoi Doctor.
“But, there is nothing to worry too much about on the side of non-smokers, because nine out of ten patients with bronchial cancer are smokers”, concludes the researcher.
The study also reveals that 70% of patients with non-smoking bronchopulmonary cancer are women. “This data, which supports the thesis according to which a hormonal factor combined with passive smoking perhaps increases this risk” explains Dr Daniel Coëtmeur to the Pourquoi Docteur website.
Lung cancer is one of the most frequent cancers: in France, with nearly 37,000 new cases per year (27,000 men and 10,000 women), lung cancer ranks fourth behind prostate cancer. , breast and colo-rectum. On the other hand, the lung cancer (of which tobacco is the main culprit in nine out of ten cases) climbs to a grim first place in terms of mortality because it is often diagnosed too late, in the absence of characteristic symptoms.
