Non-Smokers Getting Lung Cancer
An accidental finding put Melissa Crouse on an unexpected path. A non-smoker, she learned she had lung cancer when a routine physical turned up an abnormal chest x-ray.
“That started the ball rolling. It was discovered that there was a small tumor in the upper left lobe of my lung,” says Crouse.
More women, more young people and more non-smokers are getting lung cancer. With fewer symptoms than smokers experience, there is less chance of catching it early.
“I certainly see patients where they’ve had an abnormal chest x-ray, it was attributed eventually to infection or inflammation and then there was no follow-up x-ray,” says Dr. Lowell Hart, who is an oncologist on medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System.
This is no small issue; if lung cancer in non-smokers had its own separate category it would rank among the top 10 fatal cancers in this country. Researchers are paying close attention to see what may be fueling the increase.
“For the patients that haven’t been smokers, they more often will have what we call a driver mutation. One gene goes bad in the lung tissue and drives the cancer,” says Dr. Hart.
It’s thought the mutation activates a gene that helps cells replicate- causing it to work in overdrive. This knowledge is leading to targeted therapies which disrupt the process.
“The exciting research in lung cancer is in two aspects. One, getting the targeted treatment so that we can just hit that bad gene pathway. The other thing is revving up your immune system to be able to recognize the cancer as abnormal and sort of reject the cancer,” says Dr. Hart.
In addition to gene mutations, other potential causes are exposure to radon gas and air pollution. The majority of non-smokers get a variation of non-small cell lung cancer, which tends to grow slower. Not having used tobacco makes treatment easier.
“There’s no question that the non-smokers tolerate their treatments much better and are healthier to start with,” says Dr. Hart.
Gains in treatment have extended Melissa’s life. She is going on 9 years living with lung cancer and is using her unexpected journey to challenge convention.
“Anybody can get lung cancer. And that’s the message that we’re trying to get out,” says Crouse.
View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/
Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.
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