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closeNews Coverage of this paper
Posted by plosmedicine on 31 Mar 2009 at 00:31 GMT
Author: Andrew Hyde
Position: Publications Manager, PLoS Medicine
Institution: Public Library of Science
E-mail: ahyde@plos.org
Submitted Date: October 22, 2008
Published Date: October 22, 2008
This comment was originally posted as a “Reader Response” on the publication date indicated above. All Reader Responses are now available as comments.
Last week Michael Thun and colleagues from the American Cancer Society published a paper in PLoS Medicine that analyzed the incidence of lung cancer and death rates from the disease among people who have never smoke. 10-15% of cases of lung cancer occur in people who have never smoked. The research aimed to better understand the factors other than active smoking that influence risk of lung cancer, as well as the gender, racial and geographic disparities in incidence and mortality.
The results included the finding that death rates were higher amongst men who have never smoked than women who have never smoked. African Americans and Asians living in Asia (but not in the USA) also have higher death rates from lung cancer than people of European descent.
The researched was covered in the New York Times, which linked to the PLoS paper and quoted Michael Thun to demonstrate that the research counters earlier views about the lung cancer risk in women: “Concerns have been raised that the risk was higher in women and that the risk was increasing, but this study counters those two misperceptions.” Although the research was about lung cancer incidence in non-smokers, the piece rightly emphasizes that risk of lung cancer hugely increases if you smoke.
The research was also covered in the LA Times and Scientific American (which both linked to the paper) and WebMD.
The LA Times linked to a blog written by a former American football player (and non-smoker) who has lung cancer and writes about his life with the disease.