Cigarettes damage women’s lungs more than men’s lungs

Noting that lung cancer is women’s number one cancer killer, Loyola medical oncologist Dr. Kathy S. Albain will speak on the molecular differences in lung cancer between men and women, June 4, at the annual meeting of Women Against Lung Cancer, a Professional Alliance for Education and Research (WALC), at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, Two Poydras Street, New Orleans.

“Lung cancer takes more women’s lives than reproductive cancers and breast cancer combined,” said Albain, WALC vice president and professor, division of hematology/oncology, Department of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Ill. “We must devote more resources to battling this devastating disease.”

Albain is calling for more research funding targeted to examining why lung cancer is so deadly and why it affects men and women so differently.

“Cigarette smoke damages women’s lungs more than men’s lungs and lung cancer treatment affects women differently than men,” said Albain, director, Breast Research Program; co-director of the multidisciplinary Breast Oncology Center; and director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola University Health System, Maywood, Ill.

Albain has been a principal or senior investigator for major national and international research into treating breast and lung cancer.

Women Against Lung Cancer (http://www.4WALC.org) was established in 2001 to educate the public and health care professionals about the magnitude of the lung cancer problem in women. WALC supports and encourages research in gender-related differences in the causes, treatments and prevention of lung cancer. WALC also mentors women health care professionals to pursue careers in lung cancer research.

The WALC board is composed of leading women oncology health care professionals in the United States and Canada, along with members of women’s advocacy groups and the lay public.

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