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Excerpts from: Lung cancer risk greater for women
 
By  BBC News  [08/01/01]

              Lung cancer is often fatal
              The female sex hormone oestrogen may be to
              blame for putting women at greater risk of lung
              cancer.

              US researcher Dr Jill Siegfried, from the
              University of Pittsburgh, has carried out an
              analysis of research into why women should be
              a greater risk of the killer disease.

              In both the UK and US, lung cancer now kills
              more women than breast cancer.
 

              This is partly due to the
              fact there has been an
              increase in the number
              of women smoking since
              the 1960s.

              However, Dr Siegfried
              found that among
              people who smoke the same amount, women
              may be up to twice as likely to develop lung
              cancer as men.

                         Adverse effect

              Dr Siegfried believes that the higher
              susceptibility of women to the adverse effects
              of tobacco could be associated with their
              higher levels of oestrogen.

              Oestrogen has already been linked to breast,
              endometrial and ovarian cancer.

              Evidence for this comes from two studies
              which found a greater risk of lung cancer
              among women who underwent the menopause
              late in life, and those who had short menstrual
              cycles. In both cases oestrogen levels were
              higher than average.

              Dr Siegfried believes the hormone may
              exacerbate the effects of exposure to tobacco
              smoke - and to other substances known to be
              linked to lung cancer such as the gas radon.

              She said: "The concentration of sex hormones
              may influence not only the metabolism of the
              carcinogens in tobacco smoke but also may
              influence the growth rate of lung tumours."

              Sara Hiom, a science information officer for the
              Cancer Research Campaign, said Dr Siegfried's
              hypothesis was "persuasive".

              She said: "There is a growing body of evidence
              suggesting that prolonged exposure to
              oestrogens results in high incidence of several
              forms of cancer ­ even in organs hitherto
              regarded as not hormone sensitive."

              Smoking most important

              Dr Tim Key, a senior epidemiologist at the
              Imperial Cancer Research Fund, said the
              impact of oestrogen was likely to be far less
              important than that of smoking.

              "The size of the risk for the individual is largely
              determined by how much they smoke and how
              long they have smoked.

              "Other factors such as oestrogens in women
              could have a small effect on the risk caused by
              smoking, but this type of modification of risk is
              difficult to establish because it is difficult to
              accurately measure and allow for smoking
              history.

              "The overriding priority is to reduce the
              proportion of women who smoke."

              The research is published in the journal Lancet
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