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Lung cancer deadliest tumor for Australia women  

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer of Australian women with cancer, as females who started smoking in the 1970s and 1980s as they gained equal rights with men are diagnosed with the deadly disease.

More than 50 Australian women lost their battle with lung cancer every week in 2005 and the number will rise to almost 65 female deaths a week in 2010, said a report released on Friday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

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Food Phosphates Might Spur Lung Cancer  

A diet rich in the inorganic phosphates found in many natural and processed foods accelerated the growth of lung cancers in rats, South Korean researchers report.

"Our study suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung cancer treatment as well as prevention," Myung-Haing Cho, lead author of a report in the first January issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said in a statement.

But, "an individual shouldn't act on these results as yet, other than to encourage funding organizations such as the National Institutes of Health to support research to see whether dietary phosphates encourage cancer," said Dr. John Heffner, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and past president of the American Thoracic Society, which publishes the journal.

Natural sources of dietary phosphates include leafy vegetables, fruits, meats and poultry products. Phosphates also are added to a number of foods, including baking powder, carbonated cola drinks, ice cream, bread, rolls, macaroni, fruit jellies and preserves. Food phosphates are listed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as GRAS -- generally recognized as safe -- with no limits on their use.

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Merle Haggard beats lung cancer, but craves pot 

Merle Haggard is not letting a bout with lung cancer get in the way of his ambitious touring and recording plans.

Seven weeks after the 71-year-old country legend had a lemon-sized tumor removed in what he calls "the greatest test of my fortitude," he said on Wednesday that he expects to work harder in 2009 than he has in 20 years.

Haggard says he is singing better now that he is in the throes of kicking his daily marijuana habit. . . .

They will be the first shows of his life where he has not loosened up before with either tobacco or marijuana, he said. "So it's gonna be interesting as to what kind of a show comes out of this body that's used to performing the other way."

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• Lung Cancer Becomes Deadliest Tumor for Women in Australia  

Lung cancer overtook breast cancer as the deadliest tumor for Australian women for the first time, a report showed, even as it killed fewer men. The trend will probably continue, reflecting decades-old smoking patterns.

Lung cancer killed 2,716 women in Australia in 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, compared with 2,707 breast-cancer deaths, the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare said in a report today from Canberra. The disease accounted for almost one in five of the nation’s 39,000 cancer deaths, making it the most lethal cancer for both sexes.

The report predicts lung cancer will kill more women and fewer men until at least 2010, reflecting smoking trends in the 1970s and ‘80s when the habit became more common among women as men were giving it up, said Ian Olver, chief executive officer of Cancer Council Australia.

“Women were beginning to come into the workforce and beginning to adopt the patterns of male lifestyles,” Olver said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Barriers were being broken down and that included the good things and the bad things.”

Lung cancer will probably increase by 0.4 cases for every 100,000 women each year, and fall by 1.1 cases in every 100,000 men, assuming 2005 trends continue, the report predicts.

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Lung cancer to overtake breast cancer  

Lung cancer will soon kill more females than breast cancer as women lag behind men in getting the anti-smoking message, according to the latest snapshot on Australian cancer rates.

Today's report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals that women who took up smoking in the 1970s and 1980s are now paying the price, as lung cancer outstrips breast cancer as a cause of death for the first time.

The report, Cancer In Australia: An Overview 2008, predicts that lung cancer rates in women are expected to grow by 0.4 per cent a year until 2010 but will fall by 1.1 per cent for men.

"It's tragic because there is not a lot you can do to prevent breast cancer but there is no reason for having so many people diagnosed with lung cancer when it stems from smoking," the chief executive of the Cancer Council of Australia, Ian Olver, said yesterday.

He called for a price rise on cigarettes and continued graphic advertising campaigns outlining the broad range of smoking's side effects, such as cardiovascular and gum disease.

"One in five people are smokers, so the advertising campaigns are graphic, but they need to remain as intense as they are now to make sure people get the message," he said.

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Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008 (PDF) 

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7 Cancers attributed to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption in 2005

Data on cancers attributed to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are derived from a series of age- and sex-specific aetiological fractions developed by Ridolfo and Stevenson (2001) and are summarised in Appendix E. These fractions are based on an analysis of international and Australian studies and estimate the probability that a specific agent (tobacco or excessive alcohol) causes a specific disease (cancer).

While tobacco and alcohol have each been associated with cancer in their own right, they often occur together and may interact to produce higher or lower risks. To the extent possible, the estimates of the aetiological fractions have been derived to represent the independent contribution of each risk factor. However, it is not possible to allow for all the complexities of the interactions between risk factors using this methodology. Hence the fractions for tobacco and alcohol cannot be summed to give a combined effect of the two risk factors.

7.1 Main findings

In 2005 there were an estimated 11,308 new cases of cancer and 8,155 deaths from cancer that can be attributed to smoking. This represents over 11% of cases and nearly 21% of cancer deaths. . . .

8.7 Lung cancer

For lung cancer, the highest age-standardised incidence rate occurred in the Northern Territory (53.6 cases per 100,000 persons), followed by Tasmania (50.5), Western Australia (46.1), Queensland (45.0), Victoria (42.4), South Australia (42.0), New South Wales (41.6) and the Australian Capital Territory (31.8).

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Gasp takes grasp: lung cancer top killer of Australian women 

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer to become the No 1 killer of Australian women, a new report says.

The ACT has the lowest incidence of lung cancer in the country but Canberrans suffer some of the highest rates of breast and prostate cancer.

Australian women took up cigarettes at a growing rate in the 1970s and 1980s while the smoking rate among men fell.

As a result, national lung cancer rates for women are predicted to grow 0.4 per cent every year.

The ACT averages nearly 32 cases of lung cancer per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate in the country.

The Northern Territory reported the highest rates of lung cancer with 53.6 cases for every 100,000 people, followed by Tasmania with 50 cases.

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Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008: Summary 

Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008 is a joint report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the state and territory members of the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (AACR). It presents the numbers of new cases of cancer and cancer deaths in 2005 as well as projections for 2006 to 2010. A wealth of other topics are covered, such as incidence of lymphohaematopoietic cancers using a modern classification scheme, cancers attributed to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, incidence in the states and territories, incidence rates over the life span, cancer survival, cancer prevalence, cancer-related hospitalisations, the cancer screening programs and the burden of cancer. . . .

In both sexes the five biggest killers, in order, are lung cancer, prostate cancer (males)/breast cancer (females), colorectal cancer, cancer of unknown primary site and pancreatic cancer. For females, lung cancer overtook breast cancer in 2005 to become the biggest cancer killer of females for the first time. It is projected that lung cancer deaths in females will accelerate away from breast cancer deaths. This trend is caused by the increasing rates of smoking observed in women in the 1970s and 1980s. By contrast, male smoking rates were decreasing during this period and their lung cancer incidence and death rates today are also declining.

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• Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008 (AIHW) 

Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2008 presents comprehensive national data on cancer incidence and mortality in 2005 and projections for 2006 to 2010. Other topics covered include incidence of lymphohaematopoietic cancers using a WHO-based classification scheme, cancers attributed to smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, incidence in the states and territories, incidence rates and most common cancers over the life span and cancer-related hospitalisations.

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• Cancer is on the increase in Australia 

According to the latest information cancer is on the increase in Australia.

In a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on cancer statistics for 2008 new cancer cases are expected to increase by over 3,000 cases per year.

The report shows that the number of new cancer cases diagnosed in Australia each year passed the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2005 and the number of new cases in 2008 is estimated to be over 108,000.

The report, Cancer in Australia 2008, has revealed that the major impact cancer has already had on the health system is all set to continue and the number of cancer-related hospital admissions is projected to rise by over 23,000 per year in the short term. . . .

The AIHW report also shows that Tasmania has some of the highest cancer rates in the country with an annual average of 433 cases per 100,000 people and lung cancer is overtaking breast cancer as a killer of Tasmanian women - Tasmania continues to have, high rates of smoking and the Cancer Council says the figures are alarming.

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Cancer on the increase 

TONY EASTLEY: For the first time breast cancer is no longer responsible for the greatest number of cancer deaths among women in Australia, but the bad news is that cancer generally is on the rise. The number of new cases per year has passed 100,000.

Thankfully though survival rates have steadily increased as well, as Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: In the 1970s and 80s women were being targeted by ads like this:

(Excerpt from advertisement)

WOMAN: Slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke, Virginia Slims...

SIMON LAUDER: Now the bad habits of decades past are starting to hit home. The Institute of Health and Welfare has found lung cancer is now killing more women than breast cancer.

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Tassie cancer rate shock  

TASMANIA has the country's highest cancer rate, excluding skin cancers, after taking into account its older population. . . .

Lung cancer is second only to the Northern Territory.

And lung cancer nationally has passed breast cancer as the biggest killer of Australian women, although breast cancer is more common.

It has been Tasmania's top killer of women for several years.

Senior Hobart oncologist Ray Lowenthal said Tasmania's cancer rates were a blow.

"It's an indictment on the community that so many people are still smoking. Cancer of the oesophagus, pancreas, bladder, kidney and mouth and throat are all related to smoking," Professor Lowenthal said.

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• Lung Cancer: Still the Biggest Cancer Killer, by Far  

It's the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.

It's typically discovered too late to be treated successfully, with about 85 percent of victims dead within five years of diagnosis.

And nine out of 10 cases of the disease are tied to a single behavior -- smoking.

Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That's an average of 439 people a day.

And tobacco caused 90 percent of those deaths, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

"Smoking is the most lethal legal activity in our society," said Dr. James Mulshine, a professor of internal medicine and associate provost for research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. . . .

"At this point, the progress in decreasing lung cancer death rates is due solely to men quitting smoking since the early 1990s," said Dr. Michael Thun, vice president of epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society.

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Smoking is the most lethal legal activity in our society.
Dr. James Mulshine, a professor of internal medicine and associate provost for research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That's an average of 439 people a day.

Cigarettes are women's deadliest enemy  

SMOKING-fuelled lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer cancer for Australian women.

Increased smoking rates among women in the 1970s and '80s are now costing thousands their lives, with projections revealing the situation will get much worse.

Figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show one in five cancer deaths -- 8511 a year - is now attributed to smoking.

In 2005, 2716 women died from lung cancer, passing for the first time the 2707 deaths from breast cancer.

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• Gene Variant Tied to Smokers' Risk of Lung Cancer  

People may face an increased risk of lung cancer if they have a gene variant that metabolizes the most potent of cigarette smoke carcinogens, a new study says.

The ABCB1 and ABCC1 genes normally help protect the lungs by removing inhaled toxins. Specifically, they act on tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) -- a cigarette smoke component shown to cause lung cancer in rodents.

Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, recently identified common variants in the ABCB1 and ABCC1 genes (ABCB1 rs3842 or ABCC1 rs212090) tied to people with lung cancer that might indicate a person's increased risk of developing the disease. In particular, women and people under age 60 with ABCB1 rs3842 showed an increased risk of cancer. The variant was also linked to adenocarcinoma, a major type of lung cancer. . . .

The findings were published online Dec. 22 in Cancer and will appear in the Feb. 1, 2009, print issue of the journal.

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