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At 37, Samantha Murrell was the living image of health. He walked daily and enjoyed other outdoor activities such as blade surf and mountain cycling near his home in Montana.
Murrell was also proactive with his health and stayed up to date with preventive examinations. It diligently reviewed his skin to detect moles that could indicate beginnings of skin cancer, made breast self -exáxas due to family history of breast cancer and attended the appointments promptly with his obstetric gynecologist to detect any early signal of cancer cancers of the reproductive system.
In the first months of 2024, Murrell traveled to India and had difficulties with a small cough and chest pressure when he returned. Although he continued with his daily activities, the chest pressure got worse after two weeks and went to an emergency care clinic to receive treatment.
X -rays showed that his left lung had collapsed and was full of liquid. They told him to go immediately to the emergency room. After the liquid was drained and analyzed while it was hospitalized, the results showed a stage 4 lung cancer.
“She was very baffled when they said she had pulmonary cancer,” Murrell said. “It was very confusing because I had the impression, according to the education I received, that the people who did not smoke did not develop pulmonary cancer. If they had told me that I had breast, cervical or skin cancer, I would probably have accepted it immediately and would have said, ‘ Well, let’s do this’, but I thought this was the only type of cancer that I simply couldn’t have because I didn’t smoke. ”
Lee: Women who have never smoked can develop pulmonary cancer >>
What is causing pulmonary cancer in people who do not smoke?
although smoke It is still the most important risk factor of lung cancer, diagnoses such as Murrell are becoming more frequent in people who do not smoke. Up to 2 out of 10 pulmonary cancers (from 20,000 to 40,000 a year) are being diagnosed for people who They have never smoked or smoked less than 100 cigarettes During all their lives. Pulmonary cancer also has more possibilities to occur in people over 65, the average age of the diagnosis being 70 years, but younger women are now now receiving lung cancer diagnoses at higher rates That their counterparts men, especially in people who do not smoke.
Norman Edelman, MDA medical professor at the University of Stony Brook who studies lung disorders, said that the reasons why pulmonary cancer rates are increasing for people who do not smoke, but that people exposed to Particle contamination They have the greatest risk.
“Environmental pollutants increase the risk of lung cancer possibly in the same way that cigarettes do, since oxidizing chemists alter cell DNA,” said Edelman. “While research is limited to the pollutants that are monitored, the fine particles are the most studied and the most relevant.”
Although passive smoking, the smoke exposure of other people who smoke, can be a factor in the development of pulmonary cancer, environmental factors such as radonAir pollution, smoke of forest fires and fine particles are increasingly associated with cases in people who do not smoke. The Environmental Protection Agency indicates that the radon, radioactive gas that is filtered in homes, is the Main cause of pulmonary cancer in people who do not smokecontributing approximately 2900 deaths associated with pulmonary cancer to the year of people who do not smoke.
More research is also associating genetic factors to the development of lung cancer, with studies that demonstrate how air pollution triggers Pulmonary cancer development in cells with certain genetic mutations. Although Murrell’s short trip possibly did not cause his pulmonary cancer, she believes that the change in air quality and an immune system weakened by the trip triggered the symptoms that facilitated their diagnosis.
More research of genetic mutations could provide more notions of connections between pollution and lung cancer in people who do not smoke. Murrell said he has the Her2 mutationwhich is more frequent in people with breast cancer, but up to 2% of pulmonary cancer patients also have it. The most frequent cell mutations in pulmonary cancer patients are ALK or EGFR.
Leeward: Understand the various types of lung cancer >>
When Murrell was in the hospital for initial treatment, he tried to identify the cause of his cancer. Remember that he answered a questionnaire that he asked if he had worked in a factory or lived in an area with high pollution or with coal mining, conditions that do not apply for her. He lived in Iowa for seven years and read that Iowa had the Rate with the highest growth of new cancer cases In the US, was exposed to agricultural pollutants years ago?
“I don’t have an answer for my particular case,” Murrell said. “I was never close to passive smoking. I didn’t have a dangerous job. I don’t think I was exposed to Radón since I moved frequently and I only lived in the same house for approximately two years in my whole life. I just don’t know.”
Reduces your risk of pulmonary cancer
Although anyone can develop lung cancer, people of color, especially women, have Worst clinical outcomes For the disease, frequently because they are less likely to obtain an early diagnosis or receive treatment, according to the American Lung Association. This occurs even when we experience. Frequent pulmonary cancer symptoms Stories like coughs that get worse, chest pain, breathing difficulty, wheezing, coughing with blood and fatigue.
Murrell indicates that anyone who experiences these symptoms should have a consultation with a medical care provider immediately, although he knows several survivors who had erroneous diagnoses for years. By the time they received the correct diagnosis, they were already in stage 4.
“If you have those symptoms and do not disappear with normal treatments, insist a lot and press to do the investigations,” he said.
Lee: Doctors ignored my cough because I didn’t smoke, but I had stage 4 >> lung cancer
Edelman also extends that invitation to people who meet the requirements for pulmonary cancer exams. “TC have been successful. In recent decades, the 5 -year survival rate of lung cancer has increased,” he said.
To be eligible for annual exams according to the guidelines of the US preventive services work . [20 cigarrillos] A day, every day for a year. A person could have a history of having smoked 20 years-year for smoking a daily pack for 20 years or smoking two daily bags for 10 years). These criteria, however, may not include a large number of people without risk factors.
Murrell knows cases of younger women with family history to whom he denied examinations and highlights how she did not have any of the typical symptoms of pulmonary cancer by which some supplier had suggested an examination. The only early sign that she recognizes now was a blood clot in 2023 that medical care suppliers said they could associate with the use of contraceptives or sit for long periods of time on another air trip. She now believes that The coagulo was simply an early sign of pulmonary cancer.
Now, Murrell and her husband live in Park City, Utah, where she is closer to a Oncological Center recognized by the NCI [Instituto nacional del cáncer] To receive treatment. He says that his life is “very normal” despite his diagnosis and still walks four miles a day, he lifts weights and works full time. He attributes his good health to his lifestyle before cancer treatment and thanks that you can continue doing what he enjoys doing.
It also became an activist with Initiative against lung cancer for young peopleinstitution that found as a source of support while receiving treatment. On his website and on social networks, he read several stories of people who lived well years after a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer.
“Young Lung Cancer Initiative helped me a lot,” he said. “Initially when I received my diagnosis in my local hospital, they told me that I had nine months of life, but seeing other people’s messages gave me a lot of hope for this process. I am very lucky to have found the group as soon as.”
This educational resource was prepared with the support of Daiichi Sankyo.
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