Lung cancer still top cause of cancer deaths in Iowa

IOWA CITY - Health experts say Iowa will fall short in its “healthiest state” goal if legislators continue to slash tobacco control funding.

That funding is necessary to combat lung cancer - the state's leading fatal cancer, according to the State Health Registry of Iowa. The tobacco industry spent $100 million in Iowa last year as the Legislature halved the tobacco prevention and control budget to about $3 million, said Dr. Christopher Squier, a University of Iowa professor of oral pathology.

“No other area faces that sort of opponent,” Squier said Wednesday during the release of the registry's annual Cancer in Iowa report. “Who do you think is winning?”

He said 30 percent of all cancers and 80 percent of mouth and lung cancers are related to smoking.

“That means we need to take tobacco control and smoking cessation very seriously,” Squier said, pointing to nicotine replacement therapies that are proven to help smokers quit, but are now unfunded in Iowa.

Iowa ranks 16th in the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the standard Iowa is using for its Healthiest State Initiative, an effort announced last year to make Iowa the nation's healthiest state by 2016.

This year, an estimated 1,740 Iowans will die of lung cancer, according to the report - more than those who fall victim to prostate, colon and breast cancer combined.

New pills are available that shrink lung cancer tumors for about 6 percent of patients with a genetic mutation, said Dr. George Weiner, director of the UI-based Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. Unfortunately, the tumors return, he said, but research into the treatment holds promise.

The report predicts 6,400 Iowans will die from cancer this year, up 100 from last year's estimate of 6,300, and 17,500 new cases will be diagnosed, up 1,000 from 16,500 last year.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of cancer, but another danger lurks in Iowa homes in the form of radon, said Dr. Charles Lynch, a UI professor of epidemiology and medical director of the registry.

The naturally occurring radioactive gas, which comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil, enters homes through cracks in the foundation, floors, sump pits and walls. Lynch said seven of 10 homes in Iowa have radon levels above the Environmental Protection Agency's “action level” of 4 picocuries per liter of air.

“You can't see it, you can't smell it ... but you can measure it,” he said.

Gail Orcutt, 58, a retired teacher from Pleasant Hill, said she had not heard of radon until she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Orcutt, who said she exercises and eats healthy foods, had never smoked and was not exposed to secondhand smoke.

She has since had one lung removed and tested her home for radon in the hopes of keeping her other lung healthy, she said. The home had elevated radon levels, so Orcutt and her husband installed a system that pipes radon out of the home.

“About 400 Iowans die annually from radon-induced lung cancer, but no one seems to notice,” she said. “It's become my personal mission to make more people notice that everyone in Iowa needs to test their home every two years.”

FYI:

See the full report: www.public-health.uiowa.edu/shri

Simple radon test kits are available at local public health departments. More information is available at:

www.idph.state.ia.us/eh/radon.asp