Dana Reeve's death draws attention to lung cancer

WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (Reuters) The lung cancer death of activist Dana Reeve, a non-smoker and widow of ''Superman'' star Christopher Reeve, has focused attention on what some have discounted as a ''self-induced'' disease unworthy of adequate research money.

''Sadly, it takes her death, coming just seven months after diagnosis, and the fact that she had never smoked, to let the public see the real picture of lung cancer,'' said Laurie Fenton, president of the non-profit Lung Cancer Alliance.

''Lung cancer continues to be portrayed as a self-induced cancer that does not deserve public research funding,'' Fenton said in a statement.

Reeve announced she had lung cancer in August 2005, less than two years after the 2004 death of her husband, an actor paralyzed in a 1995 horse-riding accident. She died on Monday, at 44.

Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the United States, claiming more lives than prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society said the vast majority of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking -- some 90 per cent in men and 80 per cent in women. He said the number of lung cancer deaths among men has declined since 1990, while the death rate for women leveled off in the late 1990s.

The reason for the disparity, Thun said in a telephone interview, is that women took up smoking later in the 20th century than men and have been slower to quit. The lung cancer death rates for men and women are converging now, he said.

SMOKING AND OTHER CAUSES Lung cancer in lifelong non-smokers may be caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, radon gas or asbestos, or be caused by genetic mutations that occur with age, Thun said.

Thun concurred that lung cancer research is underfunded, although he said the attention surrounding Reeve's death may help change that.

''One of the good things that may come out of her courage is she puts a face on this terrible disease and may bring additional funding to help all the way across the board,'' Thun said.

Noting that smoking is the overwhelming cause of lung cancer and 14 other cancers, Thun said the tobacco industry spends 20 dollar promoting its products for every dollar spent to control tobacco use.

Lung cancer research is underfunded compared to money invested in learning about breast or prostate cancer.

One reason for this, Thun said, is that few people with lung cancer survive long enough to be advocates fighting the disease.

There is a tendency to blame smokers for cancer, when ''the tobacco industry should actually get the blame,'' he said.

The National Cancer Institute spent 279.2 million dollar in fiscal 2005 on lung cancer research, out of a total of 4.78 billion dollar spend on research into all cancers.

The Defense Department, which appropriated 150 million dollar for breast cancer research and 85 million dollar for prostate cancer research in 2005, budgeted just 2.1 million dollar for lung cancer research for that year.

The US Centers for Disease Control, which earmarked a total 232.6 million dollar for research into breast, cervical and prostate cancer research in 2005, budgeted nothing for research into lung cancer, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance.

REUTERS SI PM0926