Lung Cancer Hits Young, Non-Smoking Women

Aug. 6, 2005 — -- In her West Bloomfield, Mich., home, Lisa Roffman wiped away tears as she read from a journal she keeps for her 9-year-old daughter, Leah.

"You are a special gift to the world," Roffman read. "You will always be alright. I love you so much. Love, Mommy."

At 44 years young, Roffman is preparing to die.

"There's a limited time period," she said. "There's a sadness and an urgency."

Two-and-a-half years ago, Roffman, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer and given less than five years to live.

"It was a complete and total shock," she said. "I certainly thought that it was going to be people who had smoked their whole lives. I always thought it was more men than women. I thought they were people who were 60 or older."

As the number of men with lung cancer declines, the American Cancer Society estimates that 73,020 women will die in the United States of lung cancer this year, more than those who will die from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers combined.

While no national studies have yet been done, many lung cancer specialists say they're seeing a disturbing trend of more and more non-smoking women with the disease.

"Many of them have done an excellent job of taking care of themselves," said Dr. Joan Schiller, who specializes in lung cancer in non-smoking younger women at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "They run. They eat right."

Ten percent to 15 percent of lung cancer victims are non-smokers. Among that group, women are two to three times more likely than men to get the disease. Doctors don't know why. Hormones, second-hand smoke, diet and air pollution all are believed to be factors.

Though lung cancer is deadlier to women than other types of cancer, breast cancer gets almost 10 times more research funding per death than lung cancer, Schiller said.

"These women are tragic victims of the fact that they have a disease that is associated with smoking," Schiller added.

Adding to the deadliness of lung cancer, the symptoms, which include shortness of breath and a chronic cough, often are misdiagnosed as asthma.

Lately though, there is some hope.