Reinforce Your Decision to Quit Smoking
Suggested lead: Yet another reason quitting smoking is a wise choice for women. Tom Britt has more
Friday, January 5, 2001
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Durham, N.C. -- If you ask people to name the number-one
cancer threat to women, chances are they would tell you it's breast
cancer. But since 1987, breast cancer has taken a back seat to lung
cancer as the leading cancer among women. Duke University Medical
Center thoracic surgeon Dr. David Harpole says to find the reason
for the rise in lung cancer deaths, you have to go back 25 to 30
years. That's how long it usually takes between the time someone
was a heavy smoker and the time when lung cancer
appears.
"You put yourself in the mid -sixties, which unfortunately is when advertising for tobacco products marketed directly at women became available and there was such a tremendous increase in smoking among women."
Harpole says that mid-sixties increase in smoking among women is directly responsible for the current increase in lung cancer cases. The number of male smokers and the number of male lung cancer cases continues to drop. Women, he says, now make up at least half of all lung cancer cases. The key to stopping that trend, he says, is to educate young women not to start. I'm Tom Britt.
Harpole says young people must be taught not to start smoking, since even those who have stopped are still in danger of developing lung cancer years later.
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