5 steps to prevent lung cancer

Lung cancer is a fatal disease that affects the lives of many Canadians each year. Fortunately, thanks to lung cancer awareness, many people are taking action steps to prevent this dreadful disease—and so can you!

• Unless you've been on a deserted island for the past 40 years, you know that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer (although two to 10 percent of lung cancers occur in people who never smoked, particularly women).

• Symptoms of this cancer include chronic coughing, wheezing, weight loss, loss of appetite, shortness of breath and bouts of bronchitis or pneumonia. To help prevent it, follow these tips.

• Your risk of developing lung cancer if you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years is about 20 times that of someone who never smoked. We know it's not easy to quit; it typically takes several attempts before it sticks.
• Our advice: make a doctor's appointment. Working with your doctor increases your odds of success by 75 percent versus going solo. The doctor will probably prescribe a nicotine replacement product. Whether you choose gum, a patch, lozenges or a nasal spray, studies find that the products can double the odds of quitting successfully (defined as being smoke-free for a year).
• Your doctor may also prescribe bupropion (Zyban) or varenicline (Champix), both of which help people quit. Only Zyban can be used in conjunction with nicotine replacement products. Should you try to quit slowly or all at once? Research shows that quitting cold turkey works better.

• Radon—a colourless, odourless gas that results from decaying radioactive elements in the earth—seeps into homes through basements and windows. It's the second leading cause of lung cancer.
• The only way to know if you have radon in your house is with testing. You can test with a home kit, available at hardware stores, or call in a professional.
• If you find radon, it can be vented to the outside with a pipe and fan system.

• Sticking to poultry, fish, and low-fat or fat-free dairy foods, and using olive oil instead of butter could pare your lung cancer risk threefold—and nearly five-fold if you're a smoker.
• Researchers don't know why saturated fat has such a strong impact on lung cancer risk. It could be related to high levels of inflammation seen in people who eat a lot of these fats.

• Losing your teeth, which is usually due to bacterial infection in the mouth, increases your risk of lung cancer by 54 percent even if you don't smoke.
• The reason? It could be related to the inflammation that leads to gum disease and tooth loss, or to the fact that people who lose their teeth don't have as healthy a diet as people with a full set.

• Researchers evaluating the use of statins, drugs widely prescribed to reduce cholesterol, in nearly half a million patients found that taking the medication for at least six months reduced the risk of lung cancer by 55 percent. Researchers suspect that statins protect against the disease by taming inflammation in the body, which contributes to cancer development. The next step is clinical trials to confirm the findings.
• Another drug that may help prevent lung cancer is the pain reliever celecoxib (Celebrex). In one study, researchers found that heavy smokers who took a high dose of the drug were less likely than those who didn't get the drug to develop the kind of precancerous cellular changes seen in smokers. Like statins, Celebrex reduces inflammation. Both drugs have potential side effects, so weigh the risks and benefits with your doctor.