[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13373-13374]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CANCER IN WOMEN

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I take a few minutes to speak on a totally 
unrelated issue on leader time and then we will move to the bill unless 
there is another comment to be made. It is a very important message. It 
is an issue most people do not understand and it has to do with an 
issue of health care and emergency health. It is regarding a 
fundamental question which most people cannot answer, cancer in women.
  I ask people to be thinking what the appropriate answer is, What is 
the deadliest cancer in women today? What is the leading cause of 
cancer death among 55 percent of our population today? Most people 
think breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, or one of the 
gynecological cancers. It is not. The deadliest cancer is lung cancer.
  It is preventable and it does not have to be that way. Therefore, the 
solution comes with education. I will take 3 or 4 minutes to comment.
  The Journal of the American Medical Association this spring published 
the astonishing finding that lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer 
deaths in American women. In fact, breast cancer, all the gynecological 
cancers, add those up and they still do not equal the number of women 
who die from lung cancer.
  The female death rate from lung cancer has risen 600 percent over the 
last six decades. The last lung cancer operation I performed was about 
10 years ago. Since then, the death rate has increased. It is a problem 
that is getting worse. The death rate continues to grow, even though 
the rate of smoking among women has begun to taper off since the 1960s. 
The whole point is that lung cancer can continue to strike even after 
someone stops smoking.
  Lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers. It tends to spread to 
the brain. It tends to spread to the bones. It is usually diagnosed 
very late. The 5-year survival, which is the end point that we in 
medicine use, is very low. If you

[[Page 13374]]

take all women who were diagnosed with lung cancer from 1992 to 1999, 
only 12 percent--1 in 10--survived 5 years. In the Journal of the 
American Medical Association article, the survival rates, according to 
the researcher, to use his words, are ``dismal.''
  It is interesting that the disease affects women differently than 
men. Probably estrogen plays a role in that. We see female smokers 
suffer a higher result of genetic damage from the smoke and the 
ingredients in smoke. Females are less able to repair genetic damage 
from the smoke. It is an epidemic. It is an epidemic in this country 
with these high death rates, but there are also great smoking increases 
across the world, so it becomes a pandemic when we look at Asia, or a 
continent I go to on a regular basis, Africa, where smoking is gaining 
in popularity. Thus, lung cancer and death will be increasing in 
decades to come.
  The good thing is we can prevent it. Up to 80 percent of lung cancer 
is caused by one thing: smoking. It is as simple at that. A lot of 
people try to dance around it but it is as simple as that. It does not 
matter statistically whether you are smoking light cigarettes or 
regular, even heavy smokers versus social smokers. There is no such 
thing as a safe cigarette today.
  You can quit and that is tough to do. I have counseled hundreds and 
hundreds of patients, being a heart surgeon, a lung surgeon, and lung 
cancer surgeon before. I have counseled hundreds of patients, probably 
thousands of patients. It is tough to quit smoking. Nevertheless, if 
you put your mind to it, you can quit, and if you quit you can reduce 
that risk.
  The best thing we can do is have people never start. That means we 
have an obligation to take the very latest scientific data, what we 
know today, and educate the American people. I argue, also, we need to 
educate people in high school today because the easiest thing to do is 
stop people from smoking up front.
  I urge my colleagues, educators, parents, and the media to convey 
that message loud and clear. We know where smoking leads. It leads to 
addiction, to cancer, contributes to heart disease, to stroke, blood 
vessel disease, and cardiovascular disease. We need to educate young 
women to the consequences of smoking before they have done irreparable 
damage to their lungs.
  Although I know my colleagues will not read the Journal of the 
American Medical Association, the article itself is factual, very well 
researched. I believe at least I have an obligation to share this with 
my colleagues so they can share the current state of the art with their 
constituents and reverse a growing challenge to women's health.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. WARNER. Could we speak for a minute before the quorum call?
  Mr. REID. Senator Daschle is going to give a speech.
  Mr. WARNER. I was going to recommend that our colleague from Alaska, 
who has commitments early this morning, be able to initiate on this 
side comments in rebuttal to the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin 
and the Senator from Michigan can follow and then the Presiding Officer 
wishes to say something, and I will wrap.
  Mr. REID. I am sure that is appropriate.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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