Cigarette Smoking the Reason for Rise in Lung Cancer Cases
Posted on: Friday, 23 May 2008, 00:00 CDT
KUALA LUMPUR: The number of lung cancer cases has gone up from 2,256 in 2002 to more than 3,000 last year, and the cause has fallen squarely on cigarette smoking.
Almost 70 per cent of the smokers were in the third and fourth stage of the disease when they came in for treatment, Institute of Respiratory Medicine (IRM) director Datin Dr Aziah Ahmad Mahayiddin said.
She said even with the best treatment, their survival rate was slim.
"I just do not know what to do because even when we conduct free lung-function tests for smokers at hospital or at shopping complexes, the smokers never come forward to check their lungs.
"They, instead, ask their wives to check theirs. It is always non- smokers who come forward," she said.
Lung cancer is the most common cancer among males of all three major ethnic groups in Malaysia.
The risk of getting lung cancer for Chinese males is one in 20 and that for Malays and Indians is one in 40.
Dr Aziah said IRM, which saw at least two new lung cancer patients every week, was also seeing younger men detected with the disease.
A few years ago, it only saw lung cancer patients aged 60 and above but in the past two years, it had been treating patients aged 45 and above.
Tobacco smoke is the primary cause of lung cancer.
Although non-smokers can get lung cancer, the risk is about 10 times greater for smokers and is also increased by the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
"If you are a heavy smoker consuming more than 20 cigarettes a day, the risk of developing lung cancer is 30 to 40 times higher than if you don't smoke," said Dr Aziah.
She said the main reason for an increase in the disease over the years was due to the rising number of people who smoked cigarettes.
The risk of lung cancer in an ex-smoker falls to the same level as a non-smoker after about 15 years.
Dr Aziah said lung cancer was not a death sentence as patients could be treated with new drugs if the disease was detected early.
She said IRM was the first institute in the country to have a quit-smoking clinic.
It has two consultants, two specialists and 17 medical officers to diagnose and treat patients suffering from asthma, chronic pulmonary diseases, lung cancer, sleep disorder and other sicknesses.
(c) 2008 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: New Straits Times
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User Comments (1)
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Posted by Pete on 05/26/2008, 21:22 It's been shown over and over again that smoking causes the vast majority of lung cancers. Governments need to do even more to discourage people from smoking, and encourage smokers to quit. |
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