Lung cancer rising sharply among women

JAKARTA (JP): Health experts warned that lung cancer has now shot its way up as the third most likely cause of death among women due to a surge in the number of female smokers.

"From recent findings, lung cancer has become the third highest killer among the female population after breast and cervix cancer," the head of the pulmonary department at the University of Indonesia, Anwar Jusuf, said on Saturday.

Ten years ago, lung cancer was not even in the top ten causes of death among women. But this number has risen with the surge of female smokers, who now represent about 10 percent of the female population of about 105 million.

Anwar said a decade ago only 1 percent of the female population liked to light up a cigarette.

The surge in actual numbers and percentage of female smokers is in stark comparison to men, who have seen a slight downward turn in recent years.

"Sixty-six percent were male smokers ten years ago, but now only 59 percent of the male population smoke," Anwar said.

It is estimated that three out of every 1,000 smokers will suffer from lung cancer within 20 years, compared to seven out of every 100,000 for nonsmokers.

Anwar could not provide an explanation as to why more women are smoking, but it is widely believed that rising income among the female population along with shifts in cultural and social perceptions, particularly in urban areas, have resulted in women picking up the habit.

But he added that several misperceptions, such as smoking can reduce one's appetite and thus aid weight reduction, may have contributed to the increase.

"Far from the truth, smoking is the worst method for reducing weight," he said.

One of the major neglected concerns, Anwar said, was that diagnosing and treating a disease such as lung cancer was very expensive and thus the rise of the illness would also mean private financial resources would also be absorbed.

"To undergo the most simple and inaccurate test for lung cancer will cost at least Rp 1 million (US$140)," he noted.

"The cheapest treatment for diseases requiring chemotherapy will cost Rp 48 million every six months," Anwar said.

He argued that profits and taxes generated from cigarette companies was not equivalent to the cost which has been born by treating the disease.

One difficulty of diagnosing lung cancer is that it's symptoms are similar to tuberculosis or bronchitis.

"The similarity has often mislead doctors into making an improper diagnosis," said physician Nirwan Arif.

Nirwan said Indonesia also lacks the necessary equipment needed to conduct an early detection of the disease.

Most hospitals in Indonesia currently detect lung cancer by testing the phlegm or by doing a bronchoscopy test. Such tests, while effective, only detect the cancer after it has reached a high stadium.

"The tests are not sensitive enough to detect first stadium lung cancer because the disease attacks the respiratory channel and not the lung itself... While these tests check the condition of the lung," he said.

The reason for the lack of equipment here is mainly due to the high cost of these sophisticated devices.

The ability of treating lung cancer in Indonesia, while already advanced, is limited to major cities -- Surabaya, Bandung, Surakarta, Semarang, Medan and Jakarta.

"Only these cities have the technology of radiotherapy to treat the patients," Nirwan said.

But he quickly pointed out that even these advanced treatments do not completely cure the disease.

"So it is better to stop smoking rather than spending money just to extend your age," he added.(04)