Lung cancer can happen to anyone
Prof. Dr. Ingel Demedts
Interview with Prof. Dr. Ingel Demedts
Due to a lack of clear symptoms, lung cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage. However, certain warning signs should not be ignored. While the disease is more common among older people, it can occur at any age and affects both women and men equally.
Professor Ingel Demedts, chair of the lung cancer working group and pulmonologist at AZ Delta Roeselare, addresses several persistent misconceptions.
People often associate lung cancer with obvious symptoms like coughing or shortness of breath. Is that always the case?
Ingel Demedts Often there are no symptoms. A lung tumor is often only discovered after it has already spread, causing symptoms. By then, it’s usually too late for curative treatment.
Because lung cancer has so few symptoms, it’s often diagnosed late, and people don’t tend to think of getting their lungs checked. However, certain signs should not be ignored. For example, anyone coughing up blood should consult a doctor. Sudden weight loss is also a significant warning sign. Most people, though, do not immediately consider visiting a lung specialist. Chest pain should also prompt a check-up. While a common cold might not seem serious, a cough that lasts two, three, or even four weeks is a strong reason to visit your GP. Smokers, in particular, often dismiss a “smoker’s cough” as normal and put off having a lung X-ray.
"A lung tumor is often only discovered after it has already spread, causing symptoms."
What can people do to detect lung cancer as early as possible?
Ingel Demedts Persistent symptoms such as shortness of breath or chest pain should prompt a visit to the general practitioner. A physical exam alone, however, is not enough. In many cases, the doctor might not find anything abnormal. That’s why a lung X-ray, preferably a chest CT scan, is crucial.
There’s a common belief that lung cancer mainly affects older people and men. Is that true?
Ingel Demedts Lung cancer is strongly linked to risk behaviors, particularly smoking. The outdated notion that only men get lung cancer because men smoke and women don’t has long been debunked. As women began smoking more frequently, there has been a corresponding rise in lung cancer rates among women.
There is a misconception that lung cancer affects mainly the elderly. While it’s true that lung cancer is most often diagnosed in individuals around the age of 70, the disease can affect people at any age. The age range is broad, and younger people can also develop lung cancer. We often see cases in individuals with active careers and busy social lives.
I once had a patient who was only 22 years old. That’s extremely young and very rare. In such cases, we review the family’s medical history and refer the patient for genetic counselling. Even then, we are not always able to identify a clear cause.
We regularly see people who work and have very active social lives develop lung cancer."
Is lung cancer hereditary?
Ingel Demedts With breast cancer, there are known hereditary mutations, so people are aware from birth if they are at risk. This isn’t the case with lung cancer. There are some families with genetic abnormalities that increase the risk, but these cases are very rare and far less common than for breast cancer.
What are the main risk factors for lung cancer?
Ingel Demedts Smoking is the most significant risk factor, including passive smoking, although quantifying its impact is difficult. As medical research focuses heavily on smoking, we may not always pay enough attention to other causes. These are also harder to identify and explore. However, asbestos and radon are recognized as risk factors.
In 10 to 15% of patients, the cause is neither smoking, radon, nor asbestos. We still don’t fully understand the reasons underlying those cases. Air pollution is another factor that is being increasingly studied. There is a demonstrated correlation between the amount of fine dust in the air and the risk of developing lung cancer. Higher levels of fine dust—typically found in urban areas and near highways—are associated with higher rates of lung cancer. However, this is much harder to measure and prove than smoking. How can we determine the amount and type of polluted air a patient has inhaled over their lifetime? One thing we do know is that in major urban areas of China, where air pollution is extreme, lung cancer rates among younger people are higher.