today i watched a web video that discussed the differences between men and women and the way breast cancer affects them. in the video, an oncologist was saying that her typical patient is a woman in her 50s or early 60s who started smoking in college and who quit when she was ready to start having kids. even after 25+ years of quitting, lung cancer seems to catch up to them. this is a scary thought for me. are cancer cells "initiated' during the years of smoking, and just lie dormant or unseen until a full blown tumour or tumours come about....many, many years later? there was another segment about how quitting smoking, even after a diagnosis of lung cancer, may be drastically increase one's chances of survival. the only sure thing, i suppose, is that quitting is the way to go. i just hope the damage done by smoking is not irreversible in most cases.
