Lung Cancer Though You Don't Smoke?

[Thomas3.20.2010]

Decrease Your Risk!

You go into the doctor's office to consult after the MRI or X-Ray and your worst fears are confirmed. The shadow, that thing was on the film and you have lung cancer. Though you stopped smoking twenty years ago, that blop still appeared. Now what are your chances? This may not be the worst of it. What if you never ever smoked and that blob was there? It happens. Christopher Reeves' wife, Dana Reeves was a prime example of this circumstance. 

The cancer scenario is one that many individuals dread especially if they ever smoked in their lives and stopped or continue to smoke. Lung cancer is no joke and the relationship between that and smoking and other forms of cancer seems clear cut. But if you enjoy cigarettes and have tried to stop 50 times and continue the addiction despite all your best attempts, what to do? You block out imagining such scenarios like the one above and enjoy a deep, long drag from that Virginia Slims that you need, you want, YOU HAVE TO HAVE!  Besides, if you smoke, you don't stress and you eat less. You won't gain weight. Right?

Well, there may be something that you can do rather than select denial as your way to keep smoking. Take an aspirin, though you really should try to stop. A study that reveals startling information about decreasing women's risk of developing lung cancer was reported in the journal Lung Cancer. The study suggests that women who take aspirin have a much lower risk of developing the disease, regardless of whether they ever smoked.

In the study more than 1000 Asian women were sampled. The population included 398 Chinese women who had been diagnosed with lung cancer and 814 women who were healthy. Wei-Yen Lim, of the National University of Singapore and colleagues reported, "Our results suggest thataspirin consumption may reduce lung cancer risk in Asian women."  Specifically, researchers discovered that the women who took aspirin at least twice a week for a month or longer had a 50 percent lower risk of getting cancer than those who didn't take aspirin. Of course, the study results show a relationship but the direct correlation between taking aspirin and not getting cancer is still inconclusive and more research must be accomplished.

What was interesting was that even if the women smoked, if they took aspirin, their likelihood of developing lung cancer carried with it an even lower risk than for those who never smoked. It was found to be 62 percent lower for the smokers and 50 percent lower for the non smokers. The control variables were age, education and diet, including amount of fruits and vegetables consumed. However, Lim was cautious that there may have been other variables overlooked which could have contributed to the 62 percent and 50 percent lower risk in the aspirin users than in those who didn't frequently take aspirin. Additionally, the study is a large selection of individuals which increases percentages so that the lowered risk for the individual may not be that dramatic.

Science has discovered the benefits of aspirin in helping to prevent fatal heart attacks. Feel jaw pain and/or acute indigestion or pain up and down your arm? Chew and swallow a couple of aspirin and immediately call the ambulance. What does aspirin do to help and how may it protect against cancer? It stimulates blood flow, prevents inflammation or mitigates it by blocking cyclooxygenase-2, or COX-2. This is an enzyme of inflammation which causes cell division, and is found in high levels in tumors.

But there are those detractors or "realists" like Andrew Chan at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study. His comment was that the evidence on aspirin and lung cancerwas “mixed.” And he reinforced what all of us have heard countless times. You don't want lung cancer? Well, you know what to do.

“The number one thing a person can do to minimize the risk of lung cancer is to not smoke,” Chan said. Well, not necessarily. Dana Reeve, a lifelong non-smoker died at 44 of lung cancer. Some people don't smoke and still get lung cancer. In Dana Reeves' circumstances, the evidence may not have been so "mixed." If she had taken aspirin two or three times a week, even though she was not Asian, she may have decreased her chances of getting cancer.

Chan, a gastroenterologist who researches colon cancer suggests that there is a greater relationship between aspirin and colon cancer protection. But rather than every fifty, sixty and seventy-year-old rush out to CVS and buy a huge bottle of Bayer and chew them three times a week, Chan, said that a discussion with their doctor might be a reasonable direction to take. And he added that overall health should most likely dictate an individual's and doctor's protocol.

However, it is important to note that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men aged 45 to 79 take aspirin to prevent heart attacks. The caveat is this: they should pursue the aspirin regimen as long as their personal benefit is likely to outweigh the risk of bleeding. Likewise, for women age 55 to 79, aspirin is recommended as a preventative for ischemic strokes. 

If more studies are conducted as they well should be, aspirin may be one of the greatest, underestimated discoveries in medical research history, without the really horrible side effects of other pharmaceuticals and without their egregious costs. Such aspirin studies are very worthy and perhaps more of an imperative than is realized by medical science. Just think of it. Aspirin! A sexy preventative drug.