Lung cancer among non-smoking women is on the rise due to pollution and exposure to oil fumes in the kitchen, Taichung-based Dai Fang-chuan (戴芳銓) said on Tuesday.
The percentage of women with lung adenocarcinoma is abnormally high and many do not smoke, the doctor of internal thoracic medicine at Asia University Hospital said.
There are two main types of lung cancer, small cell and non-small cell, with 85 percent of lung cancer cases falling into the latter category, he said.
Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Taipei Times
Lung adenocarcinoma, the most common sub-type of non-small cell lung cancer, is prevalent among non-smokers and women, he said, adding that its relatively slow growth and metastasis makes detection difficult during the early stages.
A woman surnamed Chang (張), 45, is undergoing treatment at the hospital for stage four cancer, despite not being a smoker or drinker and leading a healthy lifestyle, he said.
Initially, Chang’s doctors assumed her complaints of stiffness and pain in the neck were symptoms of common muscle strains, for which painkillers and muscle relaxants were prescribed, he said.
After the symptoms continued unbated for three or four days, oncologists at Asia University Hospital became involved, and their computerized tomography scan showed that the lymph nodes in her left shoulder were enlarged, he said.
Fearing cancer, the medical team ordered X-rays that revealed a 2cm shadow in the lower portion of the left lung. Biopsies confirmed that the growth was malignant, he said.
Doctors at the hospital believe Chang’s late-stage cancer was caused either by Taichung’s air quality, which has been on the decline, or by oil fumes in her poorly ventilated kitchen, he said.
Viral inflammation of the neck lymph nodes rarely exceed 2cm in diameter and hard lumps exceeding that size could be lymphatic tumors, of which 80 percent are due to metastasized lung, throat, mouth or nasal cancer, he said.
To minimize lung cancer risk, people should avoid exposure to carcinogens — which could occur at industrial workplaces that utilize asbestos or gasoline — reduce the use of cooking oil, improve kitchen ventilation and be mindful of the air quality index, he said.
Additionally, eating carotene-rich vegetables and exercising regularly are effective ways to strengthen the body’s natural defenses against cancer, he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods