Understanding Updated Guidelines for Lung Cancer ScreeningIf you or a loved one has a history of smoking, screening for lung cancer is important for prevention for the disease. Updated guidelines released in 2021 have expanded which patients should be…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 103
103 plays
| 0
April 26, 2023
Cancer
If you or a loved one has a history of smoking, screening for lung cancer is important for prevention for the disease. Updated guidelines released in 2021 have expanded which patients should be screened. Learn about the new guidelines, explains who should consider getting screened for lung cancer, and outlines what to expect during the screening. |
|
How to Choose a Lung Transplant ProgramDeciding where to have a lung transplant procedure for lung disease is can have a big impact on the transplant outcome. Matthew Morrell, MD, medical director of the lung transplant program at…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 34
34 plays
| 0
September 28, 2022
Cancer Interviewer: For patients with lung disease, deciding what medical center you'll partner with for a lung transplant is a big decision and there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. But today, we're going to help answer some of those questions you might have. Dr. Matthew Morrell, he's dedicated his career to ensuring patients who need lung transplants get them and also have the best outcomes possible. He's been at some of the biggest lung transplant centers in the United States, and now he's the medical director of The Lung Transplant Program at University of Utah Health. Dr. Morrell, thank you for sharing your expertise. And the first question is I learned that sometimes a patient diagnosed with lung failure isn't even told that a lung transplant is an option. That really surprises me. Explain that for me. Dr. Morrell: Honestly, it's interesting. Not a lot of people or lung doctors in the community even think this is an option. There's a lot of misinformation, miscommunication between providers and patients that are out there. So our goal has really been to reach out to providers, to reach out to doctors, to really educate them about lung transplant as a potential option. Interviewer: So if a patient has been . . . if that's never been mentioned, or they've been told, "Maybe that's not an option," it might be a good idea to seek out a second opinion. Dr. Morrell: That's exactly right. So we here at the University of Utah, we're always willing to talk to any patient that has any questions, even those that don't necessarily even have a referral from a lung doctor, their lung doctor isn't in the community. We've seen patients that call up and just want to say, "Hey, I want to speak to somebody that can give me more information about lung transplant," and, "Hey, am I a candidate? What makes a good candidate? What doesn't?" Interviewer: Yeah. Obviously, you know all those things. You live it every day. Let's say a patient has been told that they are a candidate for a lung transplant, or maybe that's an option they should consider. Based on what you just said, maybe a patient thinks that a transplant would be a good option for them. Does the patient get to pick the medical center where the procedure is done, or is it kind of when I've got a cold, I'm going to go to the nearest InstaCare? Dr. Morrell: Well, patients, yes, they have the option of choosing where they want to go to get their lung transplant. Insurance sometimes does dictate where they can go, but honestly, if a patient says, "Hey, I want to come to University of Utah," they just talk to the provider, and that provider can make that referral down to us. Interviewer: So that's great that a patient gets to choose. In a way, that's great, right? But it also comes with a lot of decisions that have to be made, a lot of things that have to be weighed. So what would you say to a patient that's trying to make that decision of choosing a center? What are some of the things they should consider? Dr. Morrell: Well, honestly, you want to look at the center's history. How long has that center been doing lung transplants? How many patients have they transplanted? How many patients do they transplant a year? Are they doing research in the field of lung transplantation at that institution? And also, talk to patients that have actually had transplants there. We can give you the names of a couple of patients that have had transplants and you can call them, speak with them, and they can tell you their personal opinion about how that process was for them. You can speak to a coordinator and get your questions addressed even before even coming to the University of Utah. And when you do come for your initial appointment, it's mostly a meet-and-greet. No pressure. It's just an information gathering. How do you feel? Have you made that bond with that physician? Is that physician someone who you can trust? Is that someone who you want to be your advocate for you going forward as you get evaluated for lung transplant? Interviewer: One of the challenging things for lung transplantation is you're on that waiting list and you're waiting for that match, that donor match to come. And sometimes, it can just by chance come very quickly, or sometimes it might take a while. Are there things that are done at particular institutions such as University of Utah that could help increase the chances that a lung donor gets a match more quickly? Dr. Morrell: Oh, absolutely. So we are the only lung transplant program in the Intermountain West. So that means that not only do we see a lot of patients from not only inside of Utah, but the surrounding states, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, parts of Arizona. We're getting patients referred to us. On top of that, we have to get donors. If there's a donor that is in another state, that does come to us. So we do have a lot more access to some of these donors versus if you were living in a city like Los Angeles. There are a lot of other centers there. There's a handful of lung transplant centers. And so there's a lot of competition when a donor becomes available to try and match that to a recipient versus us. We're it in the Intermountain West. So if you get evaluated and get placed on the list, your chances of getting a transplant are pretty good. Interviewer: Another consideration with lung transplant is rejection. But technology and techniques are improving. Tell me about some of the things that are done at University of Utah Health that help reduce that risk of rejection and help treat rejection. Dr. Morrell: We are very aggressive once a patient gets a transplant in terms of keeping an eye on someone's lung function, on their blood work. We have patients coming pretty frequently after surgery for follow-up when rejection is the highest. So if rejection is going to happen, we catch it firsthand and we deal with it. We're involved in some of these research trials for some of these new medications to treat rejection. So if rejection is going to happen, we catch it early, we handle it, we treat it, we resolve it. And for those patients that may have rejection that is more difficult to control, we're using the cutting-edge research technology to cure rejection, to overcome it, and to improve survival. Interviewer: Another component of lung transplantation is the average life expectancy after a lung transplant, which kind of shocked me. It's about five years. I thought it was a lot longer than that. But are there some things that you can do that actually will help stretch that out? Dr. Morrell: We are very vigilant at catching problems if they do happen. We have access to nutritionists, a physical therapist that if someone has something that could affect their overall survival, we have access to state-of-the-art therapies even outside of lung transplant here at the hospital that can really help and improve survival. Interviewer: What I'm really getting about lung transplantation, the skill of the team that is doing the transplant is super important. But with lung transplantation, it sounds like the work that's done before the transplant, and even the work after the transplant, is really important. And that a patient should feel as though when they're at an institution, that if they have an issue, they're going to be able to contact somebody, and that they're going to hear back from the department. I mean, it sounds like that could be a matter of getting more years out of your transplant or not. Dr. Morrell: Exactly. There's always a nurse coordinator here on call 24/7. There's a pulmonologist on call 24/7. And along that pre-transplant side of things, as you mentioned, I want to add that we encourage patients to come early for their evaluation so we can take a look at you. And if there is a problem, if there's something we can work on, if you're a little bit overweight, we can address that, get you to lose weight. If you need some exercise, some rehab, we get you plugged into that too. If your heart needs to be looked at, we get you into the cardiologist. We want to have that time to really optimize you, to get you in the best shape you can be prior to your surgery, prior to your transplant, to really have you be that patient that exceeds that average survival, that you're that patient that 25 years out from transplant, you're loving life, you're active, you're traveling, you're living life to the fullest, and you're as healthy as you can be. Interviewer: So the average time of survival is five years, but you just mentioned 25 years. Dr. Morrell: Oh, yeah. Interviewer: It can go much longer than that. Dr. Morrell: Oh, yeah. That's the average survival. You take everyone that's had a transplant. So sometimes in transplant . . . and again, not just here, this is everywhere in the world. Sometimes patients are super sick at the time when they go on that list. They may have some medical problems that ultimately recur after transplant, and sometimes they die within that first year. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have patients that are over 20 years out. It's so rewarding to me to see these patients that are doing so well. It's wonderful. That's why I do what I do. Interviewer: Are you pretty good at being able to determine when a patient gets a lung transplant kind of what the average survival rate might be for that particular patient? Dr. Morrell: Yeah, I think we get a general sense when someone does come. We take a look at somebody, we know their medical history, we go into very, very good detail, and so we do know risk factors. "Hey, I say because of X, Y, and Z, because of your previous chest surgery, because you're on this medication, this specific one, that you do fall into this high-risk category. You may be somebody that we really have to hope for the best for after transplant. If we choose to put you on the list, complications may happen." When patients come for their evaluation, we don't want to commit them to a transplant early. We don't want to potentially shorten your survival by saying, "Hey, we're going to do a transplant even though you're not quite sick enough for a transplant." We do these early referrals that allow us to work on some of these modifiable risk factors that can influence survival. But if we have time beforehand, we'll say, "Hey, you know what? Things look good right now, but let's have you come back in six months and if you start getting sicker, if you start needing more oxygen, and if your lungs start limiting your activity level, you may kind of be pushed into that gray zone where we say, 'Okay, now is the time. Now is the time when we need to get you on that list because based upon my assessment, you may not live without a transplant longer than a year. So now may be the time to get you on the list to really improve . . .'" The goals of transplants are improve longevity, improve quantity of life, and also improve quality of life. Interviewer: If you want to learn more, just Google "lung transplant at University of Utah Health." There are a lot of great resources on that page there, including types of lung disease and the transplant surgeries that you might need for those. There's "The 10 Things to Know About Lung Transplant," patient stories about their transplant experience at University of Utah Health. Again, just Google "lung transplant University of Utah Health" to get those stories. Dr. Morrell, thank you very much.
Deciding where to have a lung transplant procedure for lung disease is can have a big impact on the transplant outcome. Learn what to look for in a lung transplant center to improve the chance of a match, minimize the possibility of rejection, and maximize your life expectancy and quality. |
|
Women Are More Likely to Get Lung CancerLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women, killing more women each year than breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer combined. Yet, lung cancer is also the most preventable cancer.…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 485
485 plays
| 0
|
|
The Most Dangerous Cancer for Women Isn’t Breast CancerThe fight against breast cancer understandably has received much attention, but many women would be surprised to discover that lung cancer is a bigger threat to them. Dr. Kirtly Jones spells out the…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 84
84 plays
| 0
November 20, 2014
Family Health and Wellness
Womens Health Dr. Jones: The number one cause of cancer deaths in women? Most women would say breast cancer, but its lung cancer, and although the rate of lung cancer in men is falling, lung cancer deaths in women is rising. This is Dr. Kirtly Jones from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Utah Health Care and November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Lung cancer in women, today on The Scope. Announcer: Medical news and research from University Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope. Dr. Jones: The white ribbon. We see pink ribbons everywhere for breast cancer, teal ribbons for ovarian cancer, but where are the white ribbons for lung cancer? The CDC reports that more women die of lung cancer than breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers combined. Twenty-seven percent of all cancer deaths in the US are caused by lung cancer. The five year survival rate for those diagnosed with lung cancer is 16%, which makes it a particularly deadly cancer. Now, the lung cancer rate has fallen 21% among men, but for reasons that remain unclear, the rates have risen 116% among women. Of course, we all know that smoking is the major risk factor. Since 1960, the rate of smoking in men has gone down, but for women, not so much. Lung cancer develops differently in women than men. Women who have never smoked have a greater risk of developing lung cancer than men who've never smoked. Go figure. Worldwide, 53% of women with lung cancer were never smokers. They could have been exposed to more indoor air pollution related to cooking and heating, and that may be the risk factor for women in Asia and in China and somewhat in the United States. Women tend to develop lung cancer at a younger age than men, too. The good news is women are more likely than men to be diagnosed in early stages of lung cancer, because women probably get more health care, and women tend to live longer than men after treatment for lung cancer. So, that's the good news. Well, I'm thrilled to live in Utah where smoking is so uncommon, and where it's against the law to smoke in enclosed public places. However, a notable trend in the increase in lung cancer among healthy non-smokers is known primarily in women. If lung cancers in non-smokers were its own category, it would rank among the top 10 of fatal cancers in the US. Lung cancer can result from factors other than smoking. Genetic mutations, as well as exposure to radon gas, secondhand smoke, air pollution and asbestos, among some other things. In Utah, we have particular geographic risks related to radon and air pollution. So, what to do for this largely preventable, common cancer? If you're a smoker, you should stop smoking. Ten years after quitting, your risk of lung cancer is half of what it would have been if you didn't quit. If you're a heavy smoker over 50, talk to your doctor about the pros and cons of low dose CT scans for screening. If you aren't a smoker, don't start. If you're an adolescent or the parents of one, starting smoking is especially bad, as you're more likely to be addicted to nicotine, and have your developing brain wired for risky behavior, like alcohol. Lowering your risk of secondhand smoke. If someone in your family smokes, no smoking in the house or in the car. Check your home for radon. Now, radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that results from the breakdown of uranium and soil and rocks. It cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled, and according to the EPA, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in this country, and it's the leading cause among non-smokers. Outdoors, there's so little radon that it's not likely to be dangerous, but indoors, radon can be more concentrated. When it's breathed in, it enters the lungs and exposes them to radiation. Homes in some parts of the US, like Utah, which are built on soil with natural uranium deposits can have high indoor radon levels, especially in basements. My basement is ventilated and has a fan in it specifically for that reason, and I live here in Salt Lake City. If you are concerned about radon exposure, you can use a radon detection kit. State and local offices of the EPA can give you the names of reliable companies who can test your home. So get it checked and get it fixed. Limit your time on the freeway and be an advocate for clean air. Eat your fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in your diet is associated with lower risk of lung cancer. Vitamin pills won't do the trick. So, ladies and gentlemen, put on your white ribbons this month. Lung cancer is largely a preventable disease. Think about the air you breathe and what's in it. Protect yourself and the people around you. This is Dr. Kirtly Jones and thank you for joining us on The Scope. Announcer: TheScopeRadio.com is University of Utah Health Sciences Radio. If you like what you heard, be sure to get our latest content by following us on Facebook. Just click on the Facebook icon at TheScopeRadio.com. |
|
A New Tool to Confront Lung CancerOnly 15% of patients with lung squamous cell cancer – the second most common lung cancer – survive five years past diagnosis. Trudy Oliver, Ph.D., Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 194
194 plays
| 0
June 19, 2014
Cancer
Health Sciences Announcer: Examining the latest research and telling you about the latest breakthroughs. The Science and Research Show is on the Scope. Host: Only 15% of patients with squamous cell lung cancer survive to five years past their diagnosis. It is a difficult cancer to treat. My guest, Dr. Trudy Oliver has developed a new tool for understanding the disease and developing targeted therapies. Dr. Oliver, you've developed a mouse model for lung squamous cell carcinoma. Why is this important? Dr. Trudy Oliver: This is really important because, up until now, we've known very little about this disease. Most patients with squamous cell carcinoma are treated with chemotherapy and when that doesn't work, patients really don't have any second line treatments. Whereas for other lung tumor types, over the past 10 or 20 years, there've been tremendous advancements in developing targeted therapies and we really lack these targeted therapies for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung and one of the reasons why our understanding of this disease has lagged behind is because we don't have good model systems. Host: And in the process of making this model for lung squamous cell carcinoma you've made some important discoveries about what triggers formations of these tumors. Dr. Trudy Oliver: That's right. So in 2011 a group called the Cancer Genome Atlas sequenced about 200 human squamous tumors and in that process they discovered the genes that are most frequently altered in the disease, one of which is called SOX2 . So SOX2 is frequently overexpressed or highly expressed in the human squamous tumors and so we took a unique approach to use viruses to deliver genes to the mouse lung that we think are important drivers of the disease. And so we put SOX2 in viruses and delivered them to the mouse lung by having the mice inhale the viruses and the viruses then allow the expression of SOX2 in the mouse lung. This in combination with other - specific other hits in the lung that we engineered - led to the exclusive development of squamous lung tumors. Host: When you tested these in mice, I mean, did you think it would work or did you think it would work as well as it did? I mean I don't know. It seems kind of amazing to me actually. Dr. Trudy Oliver: It definitely felt like... and that's probably why it was so exciting is it definitely felt like this is a longshot and part of the reason why it was a longshot was our approach. So we knew that these genes were important and we knew that if we made genetically engineered mice, that costs thousands and thousands of dollars and take years to develop, we believed we'd ultimately have a model but we didn't know what combination to use. Host: Oh, I see. Dr. Trudy Oliver: So realistically, to test every important combination would take millions of dollars and five, ten years and I knew that I couldn't afford to do that. So the longshot was we said, let's take advantage of these viruses that will allow us to develop - to deliver many genes in a short amount of time with a lot less money but, technically, to deliver these genes is not an easy thing. So we infected a lot of mice with a lot of genes in different combinations and then we monitored the mice by micro-CT imaging. Host: Yeah. Dr. Trudy Oliver: The whole lab was excited and screaming and running around high-fiving each other. Just to see this blob in the lung. And once we started seeing the second tumor and the third tumor, we knew we were on to something. Host: So how similar are these tumors in the mice to what humans get? Dr. Trudy Oliver: They are remarkably similar. In fact, I would say that a pathologist, looking under the microscope at our tumors, would not know it's from the mouse. They would think they're looking at the human disease. So they visually look like human tumors and then when we stain them for biomarkers of the human disease, which are used to diagnose that this is a human squamous tumor, our mouse tumors light up for those markers. Host: In your model you actually combined two changes to gene expression, right? So there was the SOX2 change and then one of another gene... Dr. Trudy Oliver: That's right. Host: Lkb1. Dr. Trudy Oliver: So SOX2 expression alone in the mouse lung doesn't really do anything in terms of cancer. But what we found is that when we combine that with loss of this gene called Lkb1, which is also called a tumor suppressor, what we found is that that led to squamous cell lung tumors. Host: So help me understand how, like, if someone were to develop this kind of cancer, how it might happen. Would they inherit one of those mutations first or you just don't know, sort of, the sequence of events that would lead to those changes and tumor formation? Dr. Trudy Oliver: So we know that in many cases in cancer, having just one genetic change is not sufficient to make a tumor. It usually requires two or three or seven hits, as we call it, to - for cancer to develop. We know a lot of things in our environment that predispose to cancer. Smoking is definitely one of the biggest risk factors for lung cancer but there're other things, like, asbestos exposure, radon exposure, which is common in Utah. Poor diet, lack of exercise, any of these things can lead to cell stress in the body and when we undergo any kind of cell stress, which could be from our environment but could be just the internal workings of our cells, this can lead to mutations. Host: What do you intend to do with this model now? Dr. Trudy Oliver: Well, this model is really the first step now to begin to understand the disease like we've wanted to do and so there are so many exciting things that we can use this model for. One of which is to really understand what is the cell of origin of this tumor. What lung cell type do these hits, SOX2 and Lkb loss, arise in that lead to the development of this specific tumor type? Announcer: Interesting. Informative. And all in the name of better health. This is the Scope Health Sciences Radio. |
|
Silent Killer: Radon Is the 2nd Leading Cause of Lung CancerRadon is radioactivity that seeps up from the ground, stays in closed spaces, sits on your lungs’ surfaces and causes lung cancer; it’s a silent killer and most people are unaware of it.…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 160
160 plays
| 0
January 02, 2014
Cancer Scot: We all know the number one cause of lung cancer but do you know what number two is? That's coming up next on The Scope. Announcer: Medical news and research from University Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope. Scot: Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer but what about number two? Dr. Wallace Akerley from Huntsman Cancer Institute, what is the second cause of lung cancer? Dr. Wallace Akerley: Well radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, probably responsible for approximately 20,000 cancer deaths per year. People aren't aware of it. It's a silent killer. Its radioactivity, it seeps up from the ground and it stays in closed spaces. It can sit in your house. If anyone inhales it this radioactive material sits on your lung surfaces and it causes lung cancer. So first off people don't know that it causes lung cancer and secondly they don't know that it's around. Scot: Sure. And here in Utah from what I understand it's quite a bit worse than a lot of other places in the United States. Dr. Wallace Akerley: We've done testing in the state and been able to collect that data and it seems one in three houses in the state of Utah has excessive levels of radon. Scot: So exactly how dangerous is radon? Dr. Wallace Akerley: It's mostly dangerous if you don't know that it exists. One has to test for it and you can find that it's there. I work in a lung cancer clinic and I see patients with lung cancer every day. The majority of the patients I see actually are no longer smokers but we see maybe a third of patients who have never used a cigarette in their life. And people just assume lung cancer and cigarettes go together but in this circumstance radon is a very big cause, maybe 15% of all lung cancers in the United States are due to radon. Scot: If my level of radon is high does that pretty much guarantee me that I'm going to be getting lung cancer? I mean, at the end of the day I see its high, how concerned do I really need to be? Dr. Wallace Akerley: It depends on whether you're a smoker or not a smoker. If you are a non-smoker it gives you a lifetime risk of approximately 1%... Scot: Okay Dr. Wallace Akerley: ...chance of developing lung cancer. On the other hand, if you're a smoker there's terrible synergy unfortunately and your risk goes up about eightfold. Scot: And it sounds like testing is the best first step. Dr. Wallace Akerley: It's the only first step. You have to know that it exists and one can measure it quite easily. In fact, the majority of the states in the US have laws that require testing or at least that people be made aware. The state of Utah has called on all businesses, institutions, physicians, schools, etcetera to go out and have your houses tested. Scot: Is it something I have to hire somebody to do or can I get a testing kit on my own? Dr. Wallace Akerley: Testing kits are easy to obtain and easy to perform. So the Department of Environmental Quality has made arrangements for a test to be provided to residents of the state at a low cost. Radon.utah.gov. At that website one can sign up for a test and the test costs $7. Basically it's a canister, you put it in your basement, keep it two feet from the floor or the ground. Open it up, leave it there 48 hours, send it in. A result will come back to you and it will tell you if your levels are high, normal or excessive and whether you should do something about it or not. Scot: So my levels are high let's say in the test. What do I do then? Dr. Wallace Akerley: It's actually fairly easy to fix. Sometimes something as simple as sealing your basement will help out. More often than not though some sort of a remediation or mitigation test has to be performed. What they do is they put a pipe that goes from below your basement to the roof of the house and it eliminates the radon gas that would seep up to your house, it lets it bypass the house going through the pipe. Scot: Do you know, right now is that part of building code or is that something I have to tell my contractor if I'm getting a new house, "I want this." Dr. Wallace Akerley: You will find some contractors tell you. Scot: Okay. Dr. Wallace Akerley: Because it is something they offer that others don't but it is not part of code. Scot: Okay, all right. Do you have any final thoughts on the topic of radon? Dr. Wallace Akerley: Most important issue is to be aware that it exists. If you know that it exists you can do something about it. The test can be obtained at radon.utah.gov and they are very, very cheap. If you go to the local store it'll be much more expensive. Announcer: We're your daily dose of science. Conversation. Medicine. This is The Scope. University of Utah Health Sciences Radio. |
|
Non-Smoking Causes of Lung CancerThe stigma associated with lung cancer is that it’s a smokers’ disease and they’ve brought it on themselves. While it’s true that 90 percent of lung cancer cases are smoking…
From Interactive Marketing & Web
| 50
50 plays
| 0
December 02, 2013
Cancer
Family Health and Wellness Host: Did you know even if you're a non-smoker, just because you live in Utah you have an increased chance of getting lung cancer? We're going to talk with Dr. Shamus Carr of Huntsman Cancer Institute about what's causing that coming up next. Announcer: Interesting, informative, and all in the name of better health. This is The Scope Health Sciences Radio. Host: Lung cancer, what causes it? I think everybody thinks it's only smoking. Dr. Carr: Well, 90% of patients who get diagnosed with lung cancer, it is related to smoking. However, what's interesting is that there's 10% who do not. More interesting is here in the state of Utah 30% are non-smokers. Host: Really? What's the cause of that? Dr. Carr: There's a lot of things that have been proven to be the cause. Radon, which is a colorless, odorless gas which is in the basement of pretty much everybody's home here in the state of Utah, is a risk factor. Host: Why is it so predominant here? Dr. Carr: It's the geology, so it just comes up through the ground and here it is. Additionally, we make homes so well today, they are air tight. They keep the cold out. In the winter they keep the heat in. In the summertime they keep the heat out and they keep the cool in. If you have a colorless, odorless gas that's coming up through your basement it's not going anywhere. You run your air conditioner all summer, that air doesn't go anywhere. It just keeps recirculating in your house. Host: What about the inversions that we get? Dr. Carr: That's a great topic, and I think we're going to learn a lot more about that here in the coming years, pollution in general. In fact, there was just a recent study that just came out of China where they looked at the incidence of smoking over the last thirty years, and it hasn't changed. They smoke a lot over there, but the amount of smokers hasn't changed by percentage. Host: We talked about radon. We talked about air pollution, not necessarily proven yet, but likely. Dr. Carr: Very likely. Host: What are some other reasons we've got this 30% incidence of lung cancer in non-smokers here in Utah? Dr. Carr: I think there is also, believe it or not, we're going to find that there's going to be a genetic component. I think there are people out there whose bodies are essentially predestined for this. I've met a number of families, non-smokers, dad died of lung cancer and they said, "Oh, well he worked in the mines," so they kind of attributed it to something else. Then all of a sudden there's somebody else who's got lung cancer, then somebody else. We're starting to see that kind of issue. Host: Is there research currently going on looking into this? Dr. Carr: Yes. Host: When do you think we'll see some results? Do you have any idea? Dr. Carr: As soon as the person who's pulling the data gives it to me. We had a meeting just recently about this. The preliminary data is very striking, very striking that there's going to be a genetic component that we can start talking about in lung cancer, but not yet published. Host: You're saying that 30% of people who get lung cancer in the state of Utah are not smokers, so even though I don't smoke I've got an increased chance just because I live here. Is there a stigma attached to people who get lung cancer in general because for so many people it is because of smoking? Dr. Carr: Yeah, you know, I think there is. It's a shame because it's like, "Oh, they did this to themselves. They were bad people. They smoked cigarettes. They weren't healthy." I think that we need to get beyond that. I think this is a multifactorial problem. The incidence of smoking in the United States continues to decrease, in fact, nationally we're under 20% for the second year in a row. Host: We're your daily dose of science, conversation and medicine. This is The Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio. |