Agencies-Gaza post
Lung cancer is not restricted to smokers
An expert in the global health care system “Cleveland Clinic” demonstrated that non-smokers are as susceptible as smokers to lung cancer.
While cigarette smoking is the direct reason for lung cancer, the expert warned that passive smoking, exposure to asbestos or radon gas, and satisfactory family history can lead to the disease.
Dr. Nathan Bennell, an oncologist at Cleveland Clinic, said many people thought lung cancer was caused solely by smoking cigarettes and did not consider lung cancer patients to be the same as other cancer patients such as breast cancer, confirming that the vast majority of people who die from lung cancer had quit smoking long before they were diagnosed.
In his statements prior to the remembrance of World Lung Cancer Day on August 1, Dr. Bennell drew awareness to the existence of what he called the “Significant stigma” associated with lung cancer because the majority of people who die of it are either smokers or former smokers, but he explained that exposing the lungs to carcinogens can lead to lung cancer, inviting everyone to prevent the disease.
The medical expert added, Tobacco smoke is one of the most addictive substances and while many people become addicted in adolescence, no one deserves to die of lung cancer, whether or not they smoke.
According to the World Cancer Research Fund, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the world.
Though researchers are difficult to obtain funding for research to find a cure, because of the stigma associated with it.
Dr. Bennell explained that public funding has a strong relationship with public opinion and public opinion that does not support lung cancer as well as so-called “unsafeguarding cancers” such as breast or prostate cancer, but considered that “these types of cancer also have far more survivors who can support their access to funding.”
A study by Northwestern University in the United States found that underfunding to fight common cancers such as lung cancer could negatively affect research, drug development, and the number of approvals issued by the Food Administration.
