Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Going beyond the established guidelines of diagnosis, recent studies confirm that estrogen and an untreated infection with the Human Papiloma virus increase the risk of lung cancer in women. Yet, and just as with heart disease, there is typically no gender differences considered when diagnosing and treating women with the illness. Here is a list of recently published findings that can shed a light on women and lung cancer: While statistics show that lung cancer diagnosis is decreasing in men, lung cancer is increasing in young women.  Almost half of all lung cancer cases in young adults are women. Statistics show that diagnosis in older women has maintained in the past year.     Lung cancer is typically different in men (squamous cell lung cancer) than in women (adenocarcinoma)-- ; and therefore, the symptoms vary significantly.  Because of the differences in types of lung cancer and its location in the body, men will show the typical symptoms:  a persiste...

                                                                       ### About the Doris A. Howell Foundation:  The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through research and educating women to be catalysts for improving family health in the community. The organization does so by funding scholarships to students researching issues affecting women’s health; providing a forum for medical experts, scientists, doctors, and researchers to convey timely information on topics relevant to women’s health and the health of their families through its Lecture and Evening Series, and by funding research initiatives that improve the health of under-served women and increase awareness and advocacy in the commu...

Many are the statistics of women and cancer.  Some sources say that one in three women will develop cancer throughout her life.  What ever the statistics, the encouraging news is that cancer diagnosis in women is declining. According to this year's "Cancers Facts and Figures" published by the American Cancer Society, d eath rates have been declining in men and women since the early 1990s. From 1991 to 2011, the combined death rate dropped 22%. Over the past 5 years (2007 to 2011), the death rate for all cancers combined decreased by 1.8% per year in men and 1.4% per year in women (1) . But what are the most diagnosed cancers in men and women?  Recent news highlights the encouraging discoveries of cures for patients with cancer-- by women for women -- some  examples are listed below, but you can read all about it in the original source  here   (2) .  Kimberly Blackwell, M.D., director of the breast cancer program at the Duke Cancer...