Lung cancer among women grows in anxiously: More than 11,000 women were diagnosed last year in Spain, a number that represents a third of this type. In addition, it is already the third tumor that carries the highest percentage among women and approaches breast cancer as the first cause of death.
The reasons for this increase are multiple, and some of them were studied, such as the latest access to women in the work world, which mainly integrates the healthy habits, mainly, smoking. But there are other factors, such as biological or hormonal, still in a dark area that some investigations intend to shed light on.
The IACAP Lung Cancer Association (IACAP), with the collaboration of the pharmaceutical company, presented on Monday, the Claris project, which aims to determine the potential gender differences in occurrence, diagnosis and access to cancer treatment in Spain. To achieve this, experts suggested collecting detailed information about 2000 women diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, in a retroactive effect, one of the most aggressive forms of this aggressive tumor.
“It is the key to discovering whether there are differences in diagnostic time or in the results of sexual treatments. This information will help us to identify areas of improvement in help and research to provide better attention to our patients.
Oncology warns of the importance of knowing the gender differences in the disease. “Symptoms such as persistent cough, fatigue or weight loss can pass without anyone noticing or attributed to other less serious causes, which delay the diagnosis,” explains Rosario Garcia, head of medical oncology at the University Hospital Complex in La Coronia. In addition, experts remember the importance of early detection of lung cancer in women. “They tend to delay medical consultation due to social and family obligations, and give priority to the care of others about their health, which may complicate early diagnosis and negatively affect the diagnosis.”
