Why are so many young, fit, non-smoking women getting lung cancer?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/sep/14/lung-cancer-young-fit-non-smoking-women

37•n1b0m•4mo ago

Comments

pmdulaney•4mo ago

A recent news story says that marathoners are at heightened risk for bowel cancer. Could it be that these women are exercising excessively?

kashunstva•4mo ago

I think the data presented at ASCO this year showed an increase in adenomas (benign, potential precursors of colon cancer) among marathoners. It’s unknown yet whether the that translates into an increase incidence of colon cancer in this population, though it would be prudent to assume so for now. The study was smallish n=100 IIRC so more research is warranted. Interesting to consider the biological mechanisms if this relationship holds up.

pmdulaney•4mo ago

Thanks for your very knowledgeable response!

browningstreet•4mo ago

I think about this TED Talk from 2012 a lot.. and he presents some data. It changed some of my goals, and I’m a bit more multi-sport than I used to be.

Run for your life! At a comfortable pace, and not too far: James O'Keefe at TED×UMKC

https://youtu.be/Y6U728AZnV0?si=EI8ubUwEr4KqR2PC

amanaplanacanal•4mo ago

I wonder if this has more to do with the diet of marathoners than the running.

groggler•4mo ago

Given that exercise in moderation reduces cancer risk, I find this take a bit odd. There are plenty of environmental problems that only fit women would be highly exposed to. I.e. due to demographic differences in sport popularity, a fit male is less likely to spend significant time on a synthetic yoga mat in a generally high pollutant indoor environment with a high breathing rate.

joseda-hg•4mo ago

Moderation being the keyword, a marathon is definitionally about doing more than moderate exercise

There's a lot of body stress on repairing, maintaining and improving endurance

Maybe that skyrockets cellular division which would maybe would explain some of the impact?

groggler•4mo ago

Still.. if you asked me why marathon runners had bowel cancer I would say that they eat more low fiber carbs than is possible for a normal person..

The theory that exercise is harmful seems more like a fanciful wish than a probability given other correlation in environment and behavior where much of our environment is poorly tested and probably harmful.

stevesimmons•4mo ago

I find this a curious hypothesis, to say the least.

So I'm a marathon runner (ran a 3:08 marathon this morning, actually, at age 55). The carbs I eat are neither excessive, nor low fibre.

And all the endurance athletes I know are extremely aware of their diets and the importance of eating the right mix of high quality foods.

groggler•4mo ago

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/nutrition/recipes/g29413408/...

renewiltord•4mo ago

I suppose if it were something like essential oil diffusers or something it would have shown up in the families of these women but what if they were single? I don’t even know if they use them but it is a stereotypically young woman thing.

Regardless, I wonder if there is a non invasive early test for this.

throwaway_5753•4mo ago

Is the incidence increasing for young women or are anti smoking measures just reducing rates in old men and thus the overall demographics of those being diagnosed are changing?

IshKebab•4mo ago

Both

> cases among fit, young, non-smoking women have risen, both as a proportion and in absolute numbers

moi2388•4mo ago

Maybe there are just more fit, non-smoking women now?

IshKebab•4mo ago

Yeah definitely a possibility. The auricle also doesn't give any actual numbers in absolute terms so it might be a tiny increase.

Havoc•4mo ago

Complete speculation, but some sort of component of makeup routine being inhaled does seem plausible.

e.g. EU did just ban a nail polish remover chemical (though think that was more reproductive health than carcinogenic)

randycupertino•4mo ago

Hair products as well, especially those that react with heat (ie Brazilian blowouts, etc). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/health/brazilian-blowout-...

MandieD•4mo ago

I wonder if there’s any connection to getting and maintaining (“filling”) artificial nails. It would be interesting to also look at lung cancer incidence in nail salon workers, by which I mean “probably horrifying.”

The smell of the various chemicals is off-putting enough to make me not want to visit a nail salon for a pedicure, and of course that is far less exposure than the employees are getting.

potato3732842•4mo ago

That would be easy to detect because in all likelihood the people who do that for work would be keeling over in high numbers.

steve1977•4mo ago

You could probably generalize that to other cosmetics.

jdmoreira•4mo ago

I'm just going to say something I know nothing about but just some intuition.

Women are exposed to so much crap all the time. Sprays, perfumes, creams, scented candles, candles, incense, etc etc.

metabagel•4mo ago

This is what comes to mind for me.

https://www.mesotheliomaguide.com/community/types-of-cancer-...

LargoLasskhyfv•4mo ago

Cosmetics, perfumes, desodorants, hair-dye/spray, dyes in textiles, all sorts of modern stuff gassing off VOCs...

From hunger to luxury: The story behind the most expensive rice (2025)

Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters

A New Crypto Winter Is Here and Even the Biggest Bulls Aren't Certain Why

Moltbook was peak AI theater

Why Claude Cowork is a math problem Indian IT can't solve

Show HN: Built an space travel calculator with vanilla JavaScript v2

Why a 175-Year-Old Glassmaker Is Suddenly an AI Superstar

Micro-Front Ends in 2026: Architecture Win or Enterprise Tax?

These White-Collar Workers Actually Made the Switch to a Trade

The Wonder Drug That's Plaguing Sports

Show HN: Which chef knife steels are good? Data from 540 Reddit tread

Federated Credential Management (FedCM)

Token-to-Credit Conversion: Avoiding Floating-Point Errors in AI Billing Systems

The Story of Heroku (2022)

Obey the Testing Goat

Claude Opus 4.6 extends LLM pareto frontier

Brute Force Colors (2022)

Google Translate apparently vulnerable to prompt injection

(Bsky thread) "This turns the maintainer into an unwitting vibe coder"

Software development is undergoing a Renaissance in front of our eyes

Can you beat ensloppification? I made a quiz for Wikipedia's Signs of AI Writing

Spec-Driven Design with Kiro: Lessons from Seddle

Agents need good developer experience too

The Dark Factory

Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS (2024)

Interop 2025: A Year of Convergence

Prejudice Against Leprosy

Slint: Cross Platform UI Library

AI and Education: Generative AI and the Future of Critical Thinking

Maple Mono: Smooth your coding flow

From hunger to luxury: The story behind the most expensive rice (2025)

Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters

A New Crypto Winter Is Here and Even the Biggest Bulls Aren't Certain Why

Moltbook was peak AI theater

Why Claude Cowork is a math problem Indian IT can't solve

Show HN: Built an space travel calculator with vanilla JavaScript v2

Why a 175-Year-Old Glassmaker Is Suddenly an AI Superstar

Micro-Front Ends in 2026: Architecture Win or Enterprise Tax?

These White-Collar Workers Actually Made the Switch to a Trade

The Wonder Drug That's Plaguing Sports

Show HN: Which chef knife steels are good? Data from 540 Reddit tread

Federated Credential Management (FedCM)

Token-to-Credit Conversion: Avoiding Floating-Point Errors in AI Billing Systems

The Story of Heroku (2022)

Obey the Testing Goat

Claude Opus 4.6 extends LLM pareto frontier

Brute Force Colors (2022)

Google Translate apparently vulnerable to prompt injection

(Bsky thread) "This turns the maintainer into an unwitting vibe coder"

Software development is undergoing a Renaissance in front of our eyes

Can you beat ensloppification? I made a quiz for Wikipedia's Signs of AI Writing

Spec-Driven Design with Kiro: Lessons from Seddle

Agents need good developer experience too

The Dark Factory

Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS (2024)

Interop 2025: A Year of Convergence

Prejudice Against Leprosy

Slint: Cross Platform UI Library

AI and Education: Generative AI and the Future of Critical Thinking

Maple Mono: Smooth your coding flow

Why are so many young, fit, non-smoking women getting lung cancer?

Comments