Lung cancer in women emerges as a distinct disease

A woman’s vision problems were dismissed as cataracts, but her symptoms were caused by lung cancer that had spread to her eyes. Similar experiences show that women are frequently diagnosed too late and that lung cancer can be an epidemic in some populations. Lung cancer is often treated as a male disease, even though more women than men have lung cancer in some contexts. Researchers argue that lung cancer in women should be treated as a distinct disease shaped by biological sex differences and gender-based factors. Clinical practice has failed women through screening guidelines that marginalize them, clinical trials that under-represent them, inappropriate drug dosing and treatment regimens, and diagnostic delays that increase deaths.

"When Narjust Florez's mother told her physicans that she had problems with her vision, they dismissed them as being due to cataracts. They were wrong. Florez's mother had lung cancer, which had spread to her eyes. Despite her repeated medical visits and being highly educated and fully insured, her cancer was repeatedly missed. "My mum is a lawyer and still being gaslighted," says Florez. "Imagine what it must be like for a regular person.""

"Molena and other researchers suggest that lung cancer in women should be seen as a distinct disease, one driven by a complex interplay of biological sex differences and gender-based factors that researchers and clinicians have mainly overlooked. This oversight has translated into clinical practice that fails women at every turn: screening guidelines that have historically marginalized women, clinical trials in which women are under-represented, inappropriate drug dosages and treatment regimens, and diagnostic delays that cost lives. "It's just, unfortunately, inequalities from diagnosis to the moment of death," says Florez."

""When we talk about lung cancer, we always think about it as a disease of men, but actually there are more women with lung cancer than men," says Daniela Molena, who studies lung cancer in women at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City. Studies show not only that women are routinely being diagnosed too late, but also describe lung cancer in women as an epidemic in some populations. Yet lung cancer is still generally considered a disease of men."

Read at Nature