Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993                   TAG: 9311130137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

RISE IN LUNG CANCER DEATHS IS PREDICTED TO CONTINUE WOMEN SMOKERS ESPECIALLY

In a separate finding, the American Cancer Society reported that gains in preventing heart disease deaths in all U.S. smokers are being more than offset by the rise in deaths from lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.

Heart disease deaths have declined in smokers as they have in nonsmokers, because of factors other than smoking, including healthier diets and lifestyles. Lung cancer deaths have increased, the cancer society said.

Gary Giovino of the U.S. Surgeon General's Office on Smoking and Health reported that smoking rates continue to decline among all groups of men and women in the United States except white men 18-24. Their rate of smoking hasn't changed since 1980.

The new findings were reported in a weekly publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a meeting on nicotine addiction sponsored by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

In 1950, white women had a breast cancer death rate of 26.4 per 100,000. In 1990, the rate showed little change at 27.4.

In 1950, the death rate from lung cancer among white women was 4.9, but it climbed to 32.1 in 1990.

Lung cancer surpassed breast cancer in 1986, said Scott Tomar of the Office on Smoking and Health.

For black women, the breast cancer death rate was 21.4 per 100,000 in 1950 and 31.7 in 1990. During the same period, their lung cancer death rate soared from 3.8 to 32, surpassing breast cancer in 1990.

"The continued increase in lung cancer death rates primarily reflects patterns of cigarette smoking throughout this century," the government reported.

Smoking among white American men, for example, peaked at about 67 percent in the 1940s and 1950s. Smoking among women peaked at about 44 percent in the 1960s.

"The lung cancer death rate for men is expected to peak before the year 2000, then begin to decline," the government said. "For women, the rate will probably continue to increase into the next century."

Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society reported that heart disease made up 41 percent of smoking-related deaths in white men in the 1960s, but fell to 21 percent of the smoking deaths in the 1980s.

During the same period, the percentage of smoking deaths in white men due to lung cancer rose from 15 percent to 28 percent, he said.

Similar trends were seen in women. The data were preliminary, and the percentages could change slightly with further analysis, Thun said. But the trends were clear.

"Deaths from lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers have become a larger cause of excess mortality than coronary heart disease" in smokers, he said.

Smoking killed 419,000 Americans in 1990, including more than 150,000 from cancer, the government report said.

"The only way to turn this around is to develop better quit strategies for middle-aged smokers," Thun said. "Quitting in middle age has substantial potential benefits."

The reports were released ahead of next week's Great American Smokeout, a campaign by the cancer society aimed at encouraging smokers to give up cigarettes for at least 24 hours, with the hope that some may realize they can quit permanently.