Originally published July 30 2005
Small reduction in lung function leads to higher cancer risk
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Even the smallest lung reduction gives women a 3.5 times greater risk of developing lung cancer, Canadian researchers found.
Impaired breathing leaves women especially vulnerable to lung cancer, Canadian researchers find Reduced lung function is strongly associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, especially in women, Vancouver researchers have found.
Their study shows that even relatively small reductions in lung function result in a 3.5-times greater risk of lung cancer in women, compared with a 1.5-times greater risk in men.
The increases in cancer risk occurred regardless of the study participants' history of cigarette smoking.
"Women, when they develop reduced lung function, are at significantly higher risk of developing lung cancer than are men with a similar degree of lung function impairment," says Dr.
Sin and his colleagues analysed the results of four other studies involving more than 200,000 people, of whom nearly 6,200 had died from lung cancer.
Men with the worst lung function had more than twice the risk of lung cancer of those with the best lung function measurements.
Sin has yet to determine why women are more susceptible to lung cancer when they have minimal impairment in lung function.
"What's striking is that lung cancer death rates in men are declining, but in women they're rising very sharply.
In fact, not very much of it because men still smoke more than women."
He also stresses that cigarette smoking -- while a leading cause of reduced lung function and the leading cause of lung cancer -- is not the sole cause of reduced lung function.
"Not everybody who smokes a lot develops reduced lung function and, vice versa, some people who smoke very little or not at all develop reduced lung function."
Instead, there are probably many reasons why both women and men develop reduced lung function -- the most likely being inflammation of the airways caused by cigarette smoking, air pollution and allergens.
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