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The risk of acquiring lung cancer has been
associated with ethnicity. According Dr. Christopher Haiman,
study author and assistant professor at the University of Southern
California, the chances of lung cancer depends on a person’s
race. From 1993 to 2001, the clinical study evaluated 200,000
cigarette smokers. Approximately, ten percent of the participants
or 1,979 developed lung cancer. A notable discrepancy was found
in the ethnicity of the subjects who were eventually diagnosed
with lung cancer.
A
significant gap was seen amongst the volume of cigarettes smoked
on a daily basis. For instance, amongst the participants who
smoked less than a pack of cigarettes a day was heightened based
on the nationality of the individual. A substantial difference
was noted in races.
A close analysis of the disparity showed that low-to-moderate
smokers who were either African American or Native Hawaiian
had a higher risk of lung cancer than Caucasians who smoked
the same number of cigarettes.
On the
other side of the spectrum, Hispanics and Japanese Americans
showed the lowest risk of lung cancer from habitual cigarette
smoking. The findings were published in The New England Journal
of Medicine. Despite the fact that African Americans smoked
fewer daily cigarettes than Caucasians, a compelling aspect
of the analysis showed that African Americans were more prone
to a higher rate of lung cancer.
Additionally,
both Japanese and Latino smokers showed a 79 percent lower rate
of developing lung cancer than their African American counterparts
and whites were 55 percent less susceptible than blacks. Dr.
Haiman theorized that African Americans metabolize nicotine
differently -- making them more vulnerable to cancer.
Based on
smoking the same volume of cigarettes and on previous evaluations,
blacks depicted higher levels of carcinogens in their bloodstream
than other races (Caucasians or Hispanics). Moreover, the dietary
discrepancies, the amount of nicotine inhalation and the type
of cigarette smoked were other consideration attributed to the
lung cancer rate in blacks.
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