Genetics and Health

Peter Jennings Dies Of Lung Cancer

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on August 8th, 2005

Over IM today, my sister told me Peter Jennings died on Sunday at the age of 67. I’d forgotten he had been battling lung cancer and was sorry to hear of his passing.

When I first learned that Jennings had cancer, my first thought was: “Is he or was he a smoker?” I’ve known of a few people who had lung cancer but weren’t smokers, so I’m not as quick to jump to conclusions (although 85% of all lung cancers occur in former or current smokers). Sadly, Jennings was a smoker who quit about 20 years ago and started up again after 9/11.

Quitting smoking isn’t as good for your health as never having smoked in the first place. But, quitting does reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke to the same levels as non-smokers within just a few years. For lung cancer and other cancers, the dramatic risk reduction isn’t observed until about 10 years after quitting smoking and the risk will never return to the level of someone who never inhaled.

The carcinogens found in tobacco worm their way into your DNA and start hacking away.

“Cancers require multiple bits of genetic damage in a single cell to become malignant and permanent,” physician Michael Thun, head of epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society, says. “What continued smoking does is increases the chances that a genetically damaged cell will continue to accumulate more genetic damage and be transformed into a life-threatening cancer.”

~USA Today. April 6, 2005

Here’s what else former smokers, current smokers, and non-smokers alike can do to reduce your risk of cancer:

• Don’t smoke.
• Maintain a healthy body weight.
• Get regular exercise.
• Drink alcohol in moderation.
• Get routine wellness check-ups and cancer screening.

I had a crush on suave and intelligent Peter Jennings when I was a teenage girl and he’ll always have a special place in my heart.

“Some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky,” said Peter Jennings as he prepared to undergo chemotherapy.

~News Blues

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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease