PARIS, Oct. 7 (Benin News) –
Doctor Rosario García-Campelo, head of the medical oncology service at the Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña, has warned that lung cancer diagnoses are increasing by 4-5% among women in Spain and will in fact be the leading cause of death from cancer in women by 2025, while the general trend in the incidence of this disease is decreasing.
This is what he said during the 14th Seminar for Journalists organized by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) and MSD under the title “Diversity and Cancer”. On the other hand, as far as men are concerned, the trend has stabilized in Spain. At the global level, the expert underlined that “for the first time”, mortality due to lung cancer is decreasing, although she also specifies that this decrease is “less pronounced” among women. In fact, the oncologist pointed out that mortality from lung cancer has increased by 124% since 2003.
This is why she stressed the importance of insisting on prevention, since 40% of tumors are caused by avoidable risk factors; 85% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking. “I am concerned regarding what is happening to our young people. In 2021, 169,000 children started smoking, more girls than boys (56%)”. He warned that, if we transpose all this to women, we found that they are at a higher risk of developing lung cancer while they are less exposed to tobacco.
He also recalled the importance of early diagnosis through screening, which has not yet been implemented in Spain. “Screening for lung cancer in the population at risk reduces mortality from this disease. However, women, historically associated with lower tobacco consumption, are less likely to be included in screening campaigns, which has an impact on early diagnosis.
On the other hand, the expert reported that in Spain women are diagnosed at an earlier age than men, but with a more advanced disease.
Ms. García-Campelo celebrated that “precision medicine has changed the history of this disease, because we have seen that the biology of the disease is different in women and men”. In this sense, he warns that lung cancer patients with a family history of cancer are more often women.
TREATMENTS ARE MORE TOXIC IN WOMEN
Another gender difference in lung cancer concerns the toxicity of treatments. Thus, females exhibit greater toxicity to immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and therapeutic targets. As for why this happens, the oncologist explained that it is because the treatments are given in fixed doses, without taking into account the weight of the patients and, in many cases, the weight of women is better. It’s also down to how women report toxicity: “nausea can have a bigger impact on a woman’s life than a man’s,” she said.
This is why, for the oncologist, it is necessary to introduce the “sex” variable into studies on the quality of life. “The way of living the disease in the broad sense is different in men and in women. Clearly we need to work to understand whether risk factors can be changed by gender and whether we need to tailor treatments,” she says.
Finally, the oncologist insisted that “it is different to be a man and a woman with lung cancer”, because the psychosocial and economic impact are different. “In consultation, the man comes accompanied by a main carer who is generally his wife. On the other hand, the patient more often comes alone, her carers are sometimes her elderly parents, and not her husband. The husband does not stop working if she is the one who has the disease, but if the husband is sick, the wife stops working,” lamented the doctor.
IMMUNOTHERAPY, LESS EFFECTIVE IN WOMEN
For his part, Dr. Óscar Juan Vidal, from the University and Polytechnic Hospital of Valencia, highlighted the influence of biological sex on the effectiveness of immunotherapy, an approach to cancer treatment in which the body’s own immune system patient is used to fight tumors.
“Sex and gender differences influence the outcome of these treatments. Biological characteristics unique to women cause their tumors to have a different immunogenic profile and make them more resistant to immunotherapy with current drugs. This ultimately means that this approach is more toxic and less beneficial for women, necessitating research that takes these characteristics more into account,” he said.
