Kathy Albain
Deaths from lung cancer among women have risen 150 percent in the last 20 years, and the disease now kills about 70,000 women annually in the U.S., more than breast and ovarian cancer combined. To counter this trend Kathy Albain, an oncologist and cancer researcher affiliated with the Loyola University Health System in Maywood, helped found the professional organization Women Against Lung Cancer. Lung cancer, she says, may be different for women than men.
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In general, for the first question, it appears that females on average get lung cancer at a younger age and perhaps with less tobacco exposure than males. This is consistent with basic science in other areas, where we find that women metabolize various compounds differently than men do. Women tend to develop more of the subtype of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. And when you look at lifelong nonsmokers who develop lung cancer there are twice as many women as men.
HH: What makes you somewhat tentative about the question then?
HH: What about the other issue, about lung cancer acting differently in the two sexes once it’s diagnosed?
KA: Different degrees of activity or efficiency in the metabolism of the toxin. For example, there’s an enzyme called NAT2 that detoxifies the aromatic amines in tobacco smoke and in dyes. NAT2 has some common inherited variations that result in slower detoxification. The slow NAT2 genotype, which is present in about 60 percent of Caucasians, is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer among dye workers. Other common SNPs affect how well we can repair DNA already damaged by carcinogens. Our new study will address many of the specific SNPs pertaining to lung cancer risk in men and in women.
HH: That’s great, but not great enough for us to ignore prevention.
