. The study looked at 129,000 lung cancer cases and found that the proportion of never-smoking cases was higher in women, at 16%, than in men, at 10%, across all ages and ethnicities. The study also found that people with adenocarcinoma, like Elkins, were more likely to be never-smokers compared with other types of lung cancer.
It’s unclear why nonsmoking women are disproportionately affected or why rates of nonsmoking lung cancer are increasing. “There are some theories about genetics or hormones, but there's nothing definitive there,” said Padda, who added that family history and environmental factors like air pollution and radon exposure also increase risk.Now as a lung cancer survivor and advocate, Elkins is wary of separating people into categories of “smoker” and “nonsmoker” to avoid making stigma worse.
Instead, like Elkins, patients must be aware of the symptoms and may have to see a variety of doctors, and if possible specialists, to determine whether lung cancer is the cause. But it’s complicated; symptoms may present differently based on whether the cancer has metastasized and where it’s metastasized, as in the case of Elkins and her elbow.
“I've seen one end of the spectrum where a patient presents with lung cancer and they have no symptoms, to symptoms related to tumors in the lungs such as cough, chest wall pain, shortness of breath, or even coughing up blood,” Padda explained. Symptoms can also include fatigue, lack of appetite and unexplained weight loss. When someone has lung cancer, tumors can often spread to the bones, liver and brain, and if this occurs, patients may have additional symptoms like bone pain, abdominal pain, headaches and brain fog.There’s no way to completely prevent lung cancer; however, according to the
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