Ten to Fifteen Percent of Lung Cancer Sufferers Never Smoked

Grantanow makes a valid point. During the last war cigarettes were used as anxiety reducers and appetite suppressants. A whole generation of children grew up in homes where the adults were habitual smokers. If the risks of passive smoking are as high as is now alleged one would expect a noticeable spike in cancer deaths and especially lung cancer among those born in the 1940s. So far as I know this has not been observed.

Ex-father in law smoked heavily, his non-smoking wife died at 55 of lung cancer. I couldn't believe the fug in their sitting room the first time I visited.

My best friend and I started smoking in our late teens, but I managed to give it up eventually. Sadly she didn't and died of small cell lung cancer in her late 60's. Strangely, she lived with her mother for many years after her marriage broke up and her mother also smoked heavily but lived into her mid 80's and died of a heart attack, not cancer.

My mother smoked Senior Service and had chronic bronchitis. I can remember her GP siting on her bed and offering her a cigarette "to clear her lungs". This was c.1960.

My Dad smoked - I'd go to the shop every Saturday morning to buy his 200 for the week (and they sold them to me at 9 years of age withoutquestion!). No wonder my sister and I got asthma, though fortunately our family don't seem prone to cancer.
Do you remember cigarette machines outside newsagents, alongside the Beechnut chewing gum ones? We had a sweet shop outside school that sold one cigarette to children for 3d, but I preferred to buy sweets and comics.
I also recall that we had asbestos mittens in science class beside our bunsen burners, for "safety"!!!

ViceVersa

To me that just seems ridiculous - how can anyone think that sticking something in their mouth, setting it on fire and breathing it in can possibly be good for you? Surely no-one needed any kind of 'official' warning to know that smoking is one of the most vile habits on the planet?

My MIL was advised to smoke during WW2 when her husband was missing. The person who advised her was her GP, he said it would calm her nerves.

LadyGaGa

My lovely dad died of lung cancer in his 70’s. He had smoked Park Drive since he was 14. During WW2 the troops were given free cigarettes to boost morale - to his generation it was a way of life. When he was in hospital towards the end he used to drag his oxygen tank to the balcony to have a smoke! My friend has also been fighting lung cancer after smoking all her life - up to 40 a day before she was diagnosed. It’s a killer. I just hope that in 50 years it’s not discovered that vapes are also deadly.

A nurse friend of mine told me that vaping causes a condition called wet lung and that it will cause problems in the future, especially with so many young people doing it.

Still remembering with fondness our tennis-loving Gransnetter who developed terminal lung cancer a couple of years ago.
She had never smoked nor had she lost her wry sense of humour throughout.
🎾🕯️
.

Fewer and fewer people smoke, or have smoked in the past, so fewer and fewer people with lung cancer will have been smokers, so those with non-smoking related lung cancer will form a larger and larger proportion of all cases.

Grantanow

I would like to know why a significant number of people exposed to passive smoke at home never got cancer. Are some of us genetically protected?

Many of us grew up in a constant fog of tobacco smoke but epigenetics has overcome the bad effects for some. Epigenetics does not change the basic DNA code but it does cause modifications on top of the gene sequencing code

not just smoking

tvoc total volatile organic compounds

These are off-gases from all manner of building materials, home furnishings, home and personal care products etc. Very dangerous. The constant `silent` irritation to the sensitive cells in the lungs can cause lung cancer

I use a very efficient air purification system in my living room and bedroom, this evening the monitor went red, indicating a voc episode, could have come from outside as cool air descends. The auto setting came on and the air is being cleared

My lovely dad died of lung cancer in his 70’s. He had smoked Park Drive since he was 14. During WW2 the troops were given free cigarettes to boost morale - to his generation it was a way of life. When he was in hospital towards the end he used to drag his oxygen tank to the balcony to have a smoke! My friend has also been fighting lung cancer after smoking all her life - up to 40 a day before she was diagnosed. It’s a killer. I just hope that in 50 years it’s not discovered that vapes are also deadly.

My father died from lung cancer, age 68. He had never smoked or worked with asbestos..etc although his father was a smoker.

He went to the doctor with a pain in his shoulder (something I have since learnt is actually a common symptom of lung cancer). They diagnosed a trapped nerve but referred him for a scan just as a precaution...discovered something in his liver, but it wasn't the primary site so they did more tests and discovered the primary tumour in his lung - already spread to his spine, liver..etc and less than 4 months later he was dead. Ironically he NEVER had a cough or any trouble breathing, right up until the end.
He was a healthy weight, had a healthy diet and walked every day so it did feel very cruel - and ironically although we have other health issues in the family there is no history of any kind of cancer!

Grantanow

I would like to know why a significant number of people exposed to passive smoke at home never got cancer. Are some of us genetically protected?

Some smokers smoked for years and lived into their 90s. I am sure that there is a level of genetic susceptability, but quite often it is not one gene alone, but a combination of certain genes, and it is not limited to smoking and cancer.

I have never had flu, despite being at boarding school during the Asian flu epidemic in the 50s where almost every child got it, but a small group of us didn't. My parents never had flu to my knowledge and neither of my sisters, nor my children have had it.

Some people are less genetically disposed to get some medical conditions - and some are probably more suseptible to some medical contions for genetic reasons.

I would like to know why a significant number of people exposed to passive smoke at home never got cancer. Are some of us genetically protected?

Given the size of the babies I had, working in a smoky office could almost have been to both our advantages.

Thankfully I never worked in an open office where anyone smoked. Cigarette smoke was (may still be) a trigger for my migraine. I would have ended up only working one day in two.

When I had my first child nearly 40 years ago there was a smoking room off the postnatal ward! In my office there were many who chain smoked, I was in an office while pregnant with one of those.. It was well known back then that babies of smokers were smaller, and likely to come earlier and they were not as healthy as the babies of non smoking mothers.. Nowadays it is recognized that babies are at higher risk of SIDS if a parent smokes even if they do it away from the baby. It's not surprising that those of us who spent time with smokers are at risk, along with less optimum health for the children born into a smoky atmosphere. My husband rarely visited the pub but when he did he stunk of smoke, it cling to his clothes and hair, he didn't smoke. When everywhere was smoky all of us must have had smoky hair and clothing. Thank heavens that public places are now smoke free and there is less chance of second hand smoke.

An increase in causes other than smoking is unsurprising when you learn that in 1962 a survey showed that 70% of men and 40% of women were smokers. Many of these will have given up years ago (if still alive!) and other causes will have taken over.

The issue is though, SallyatBaytree, that research into lung cancer lags behind lots of other cancers. I think I can sort of guess why, but I hope there is a break through soon.

I second that escaped

The sad legacy, in many cases, of a ruthless tobacco industry and greedy governments.

Unfortunately an increasing number of younger people ( and more females than males) are developing EGFR positive lung cancers . These are people who have never smoked and not been exposed to 2nd hand smoke. The specific group of egfr cancers should not automatically be linked to smoking tobacco as majority are non/ never smoked. Causes still being researched.

Condolences to contributors on this thread for their heart breaking stories.

I think that's the awful bit about being diagnosed with lung cancer as a non-smoker, arum. You beat yourself up over every possible cause to find an answer. You can maybe narrow it down to breathing in particles, but which?
Is there just an element of bad luck, like say if you get breast cancer or womb cancer with no known cause? Is there a unfair element associated with lung cancer as a non-smoker because we have been conditioned to believe that smoking is the reason?

(As I said earlier, any cancer diagnosis is devastating for anyone).

Lung cancer can be caused by exposure to asbestos, air pollution, radon (a radioactive invisible gas released from certain types of soil. Radon can seep into your home and accumulate. ) Other causes could be Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, vaping and family history. Possibly it could also be toxic "fumes" from household detergents, chemicals and fabric softeners.

Dad sadly died of lung cancer in his early 80s. He was active and never smoked.

He had a cough for over a 6 months and the doctor tried him on all sorts of treatments, eh asthma inhakers, antibiotics, steroids, antihistamines, etc.

In the UK I know that a person of his age would have had a chest x-ray after at least a month of coughing. I asked mum (living in South Africa) if dad had a chest x-ray done He hadn't.

I insisted she took dad to their doctor and reqest a chest x-ray. The doctor reluctantly did a referral. There was a shadow seen. But nothing was done nor further investigation suggested.

I told mum to take dad back to the doctor and request a scan of sorts. It came back showing longer cancer. Only then he was referred for oncology!

He had chemotherapy, was pronounced "cured" but a month later he died - his lung cancer had come back and spread vigorously. Mum was devastated because if the incompetence of the doctor in the first place. Sadly she passed away just over a year later... I lost 2 parents in a very short time period. I wished that there had been some sort of medical guidelines in South Africa as they have in the UK.

I miss my parents terribly... RIP dad, 10 years today.