Women who smoke are almost twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men with the same dose of tobacco. This is the main conclusion of a study carried out within the I-ELCAP program (International Early Lung Cancer Action Program), in whose Spanish group specialists from the University Clinic and research center Applied Medicine (CIMA) of the University of Navarra are participating. The article has recently been published in the prestigious journal The Journal of the American Medical Association.

To carry out the work study, 16,925 patients (9,427 men and 7,498 women) over 40 years of age were analyzed from the United States, a country where women have been smoking for more years, with fees similar to men. While 1.2% of the men studied suffered from cancer, in women the percentage reached 2.1%.

However, according to Dr. Javier Zulueta, director of department of Pneumology at the University Clinic and manager of the Spanish group , the future is more encouraging for women: "Their risk of death is half that of men. It is related to some genetic component".

80% of diagnoses in advanced stages

In his words, less than 15% of lung cancer patients currently survive for more than five years. "This is because more than 80% of patients are diagnosed in advanced stages. People without symptoms do not get tested, and by the time they manifest themselves it is too late," he argued in favor of early detection.

On the other hand, the group of the University Clinic and the CIMA of the University of Navarra focuses on the diagnosis of cancer from the molecular point of view, looking for clues in the changes experienced before they appear in the CT scan. "The research is also studying whether there is any biological marker for individuals who do not yet have cancer and whether it can be used to predict which smokers will develop it," says Dr. Zulueta.

Recently, the group I-ELCAP of the University of Navarra published a article in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. Javier Zulueta reveals that the cancers that have been analyzed and diagnosed within the early detection program "present similar or identical molecular characteristics to those diagnosed conventionally, by symptoms. This contradicts those who claim that we identify cancers that are not very aggressive and therefore have better survival rates".