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Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES - FEBRUARY 20: "Queen of Disco" Donna Summer performs onstage on February 20, 1979 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Lung cancer’s sticky stigma as, primarily, a self-inflicted disease prompted Donna Summer’s publicist to release a terse statement Friday to emphasize the singer was “a non-smoker.”
"Various reports currently surfacing about the cause of Ms. Summer's death are not accurate. Although she lost her battle to lung cancer at the age of 63, it was not related to smoking,” said the late singer’s spokesman Brian Edwards.
“Updated May 20: While her publicist and family called her a nonsmoker, a msnbc.com reader sent a YouTube video showing the singer holding a cigarette. It’s unclear whether she had been a regular smoker, although even light tobacco use can increase risks.
Tobacco accounts for 87 percent of all lung-cancer deaths. But the same ailment is not exactly rare among nonsmokers: As many as 24,000 Americans who never puffed a cigarette die each year from the illness, the American Cancer Society reports.
Singer Donna Summer has died after fighting a long battle with cancer. The five-time Grammy winner rose to the top of the charts during the 70s and arguably did more than anyone to make disco cool. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
Some frightening context: If lung cancer in “never smokers” had its own category separate from lung cancer in smokers, “it would rank among the top 10 fatal cancers in the United States,” reports the American Cancer Society.
Los Angeles oncologist Dr. Robert Figlin said lung cancer in non-smokers remains “underappreciated in our society, in large part because smoking-related lung cancer has dominated the conversation.”
Worse, early-screening methods -- generally CT scans -- now used to find and treat cancer in the lungs of chronic smokers are not yet ready to use on nonsmokers, Figlin said.
“Those same screening tests … haven’t even been tested as yet in the population of (non-smoking) patients,” said Figlin, associate director of the academic development program and director of the division of hematology/oncology at Cedars-Sinai’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, Calif.
Even if someone doesn't actively smoke, cancer researchers have identified four primary environmental culprits, including “secondhand smoke,” or breathing in the plumes that smokers exhale.
After the 2006 death of Dana Reeve -- widow of actor Christopher Reeve -- many observers speculated her illness might have been triggered by her years of singing in smoke-filled nightclubs. The American Cancer Society estimates that 3,400 nonsmoking adults die annually from exposure to secondhand smoke.
Workplace exposure to cancer-causing agents (including chemicals and gases) -- as well as pedestrians, bikers and joggers sucking in small particles of air pollution -- are also believed to prompt some lung cancers in non-smokers.
But it is radon gas – an odorless, radioactive, element rising from uranium deposits and collecting inside homes – that leads to most of the lung cancers that strike down nonsmokers. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, radon kills 20,000 Americans annually.
Gender seems to play a small role, as well. Men who have never torched a cigarette, cigar or pipe have higher death rates than female non-smokers, cancer experts have learned. But there’s an epidemiological flipside to that stat: At ages 60 and above, there are twice as many female nonsmokers as males who never picked up the habit, yet more nonsmoking women are affected by lung cancer, says the American Cancer Society.
"There's no question, we are seeing more and more men, but mostly women who have never smoked, yet are developing lung cancer," Figlin said.
Still, the stigma remains. "Whether it's a person who smoked or who never smoked, in our society lung cancer has always been associated with the stigma of: 'Well, you did it to yourself,' says Figin.
In his view, the smoking stigma hinders development of more effective treatments for the deadly disease. "If there was some magic wand that we could wave to remove the stigma associated with lung cancer it would help us get people onboard to ask and answer questions ... that could lead to cures," Figin says.
More on Donna Summer:
Illness, death of 'very private' Donna Summer 'shocked' friends
Donna Summer dead at 63
Video: Donna Summer sings 'Hot Stuff' in 2008 on TODAY
More health news:
CDC: All baby boomers need hep C test for liver
Laxative-free colonoscopy may be as effective
Leave a Comment:
It makes me angry when non-smokers die of lung cancer, especially when all of you who do smoke are constantly screaming about your right to smoke anyplace you want to smoke.
I wish health and insurance companies would divide the people that they insure into smokers and non-smokers. I wish that when I'm sitting at a red light, there weren't cigarette butts strewn all over the place. We know that non-smokers aren't the ones doing the littering.
I'm glad to see that there hasn't been a big to-do about her death. There is a certain amount of dignity when friends and family don't make a circus out of their famous friend and relatives passing. This is so unlike what happened when Whitney Houston died - you would have thought that she cured cancer the way everyone made her death and funeral a sideshow, especially knowing that she abused both drugs and alcohol.
Donna Summer died quietly and with dignity....and those around her who are planning her funeral are letting her music and life speak for itself. Good for them!
The link did not post. go to you tube and search "
"Donna Summer in Studio - 'Last Dance'-1978"
She is there smoking
She was a smoker - it was tough to stop the frame with the cig in her hand. Her publicist did no one a favor by not stating she used to smoke. Donna probably quit when she found out she had lung cancer. FDA approves the sale of cigarettes - it must be healthy for the public to smoke.
I can't waite for the insurance companies and the government to start discrimination against fat people.
After all people it is all about money and they are proving that fat people are just as unhealthy as smokers.
Do you believe it, if not you better start now to prove otherwise or you will be next.
No matter what was the cause of Miss Summer's death, it is a tragic loss to those of us who enjoyed her music through the years. Rest in peace Miss Donna Summer.
From personal experience..My husband died in 2003, was diagnosed with bronchial aveolar carcinoma (I am positive I misspelled that but just don't feel like looking it up) on Janusry 14, 2003 and passed on March 17, 2003..NEVER smoked a day in his life..his particular type of cancer was so rare, they could/would not give us a prognosis. He went through 15 days of radiation and 4 rounds of chemo, which obviously accomplished nothing, but he had to try and beat it...it was who he was...and yes I understand completely how when lung cancer strikes everyone assumes the person smoked because everytime I told someone about his death, it went something like this.."my husband died from lung cancer, even though he never smoke a day in his life"...like that complete sentence was his actual cancer diagnosis..as for how he got it, we will never know for sure, although I was told by no less than 8 doctors that his type was not caused by the environment...
aha! another reason why we need to legalize the bud...no lung cancer, and no secondhand smoke lung cancer...well, well....legalization would help our national health care save money and help lower the risk of getting lung cancer secondhand for everyone else...hmm....! how 'bout that?
A couple of observations to share. First, I have noticed that anti-smokers rank among the rudest people alive. I consider them to be far worse than inconsiderate smokers (as opposed to considerate smokers - the vast majority of smokers, at least from my observations.). Notice how I differentiate between former smoker/non-smsoker, and anti-smoker. The latter has "seen the light and reformed" and will not rest until he/she has bludgeoned everybody into sbmission as to the rectitude of his/her mission: to reform all smokers, whether they want to reform or not. I am a former smoker. Smoked like a chimney for over twenty years, until I quit - cold turkey - 33 years ago. I try to not be judgemental. Second, nonsmokers/never-smoked do suffer the stigma of "it's your own fault" if they fall victim to respiratory illness (e.g. emphysema, lung cancer, etc). It's the same as diabetes II sufferers: "you ate too much," "you ate all the wrong stuff,"etc. Look at Paula Deen. Look at Viet Nam vets who have type II diabetes, a lot of cancers, etc. from exposure to Agent Orange. They're excoriated for life-style failings, when the root-cause of their situations is exposure to violently toxic chemicals years before when they were GIs. I'm seeing it in this discussion. People whose minds are made up will not be swayed by facts. Open your minds up, people! What you learn just might make a difference in your life or in the life of someone important to you.
hello, it is from the huge amount of dope smoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't be snookered by other nonsensical arguments.
Hmmmm.... How about eating healthy, exercising and positive attitude?
My grandmother smoked since she was a teen. Yes she died from lung cancer, her life tragically cut short at the young age of 92. Her husband who quit smoking many years ago and lived in a small house with two smokers, died at the ripe old age of 94 from natural causes.
If you look at the lung cancer rates combined with proximity to coal fired power plants and refineries, it becomes clearer as to the real problem. What you can't see, can kill you. A lot of corporations make a huge profit from it, and happen to own the majority in the house and congress.
I'd love to see everyone quit smoking just to see what excuse they would come up with to explain the small change in cancer rates. I also wonder where they find a replacement for the lost tax income they derive from smokers. Probably add to the fat tax, so a snickers would be around $5.50, you'd probably see some slimmer Americans.
boon-3649244
I could not have said it better. But I am sure that the anti-smokers, the government and researchers would claim that it will take 50 years or more for all of the smokers to die and by then they will eliminate all of the toxic chemicals currently in use and then they will say that it proves that tobacco was to blame.
Exactly boon,
They go on and on about second hand smoke, but heaven forbid we try clean energy! Lot of coal mines in my neck of the woods and the "Friends of Coal" stickers, license plates and other mediums of propaganda run rampant.
So Donna Summer made it eh? Good for her. She will never have a problem again, never feel pain again, and the best part is that she does not and will not ever miss the life she once had. Being dead is great, it's getting there that's tough. Damn that survival instinct...
Anti-Smokers Don't Tell You the Truth
www.joejackson.com/pdf/5smokingpdf_jj_smoke_lies.pdf
Cigarette smoking may or may not cause cancer. Second hand smoke may or may not cause cancer. 1000's die annually from lung cancer even though the don't now or have never smoked. OK Point made. Now how about the number of non-drivers killed by automobiles, trucks and buses. Where is the horror story re: those unfortunate deaths? Time for MSNBC to quit being everybody's Mommy. You tell us what to eat and not eat. You tell us what to drink and not drink. You make up lies or leave out facts to twist news stories to suit your needs & to make us believe certain things. Here's an idea, stay out of our lives. Report the news. Get out of the Mommy business.
JMHO YMMV
Relevancy?!
Here is the answer, that you will not hear until the profit in treatment is less than the profit in cure and prevention...
Viruses cause Cancer (all Cancers)...and all the things that are now claimed to cause Cancer simply make it harder --> immpossible for the body to fight these viruses...until we focus on the cause (viruses), every thing else is a waste of Tax Dollars and Human Lives...
We already are working on the viruses that we know to cause cancer like Hepatitis C and HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) the problem is identifying all the viruses and THEN developing a vaccine for them. We do not have a vaccine for Hep C but we do for HPV. The other problem is that there are variations in genes in humans that cause one person to have a chromosome that breaks, producing an oncogene that causes cancer (like in Chronic Granulocytic Leukemia) whereas another person who does not have that fragile gene does not develop the cancer. This issue is not being ignored. It is just a very hard one to solve. We have not even developed an effective vaccine against meningitis. The one we have does not immunize against one of the deadlier strains in the U.S.
MSNBC "tells" you what to eat and drink, Xbonz? Really?? And how, exactly do they enforce this? Does MSNBC send goons to your house and make sure you eat and drink properly? If something is found to have positive or negative health impacts, that's news and it gets reported. Whether you take it to heart or not is up to you. No news organization has the power to "tell" anyone to do anything.
@leroy brown
"MSNBC "tells" you what to eat and drink, Xbonz? Really?? And how, exactly do they enforce this? Does MSNBC send goons to your house and make sure you eat and drink properly? If something is found to have positive or negative health impacts, that's news and it gets reported. Whether you take it to heart or not is up to you. No news organization has the power to "tell" anyone to do anything. "
Perhaps you can show me where in my post I said anything remotely akin to MSNBC enforcing anything. I'll give you some time to make something up. Reporting news is just that, reporting news. What MSNBC had a habit of doing is injecting their agenda into the supposed news report. And "no news organization has the power to tell you or anyone else to do something". Really? I can tell you to go jump in the lake, I have the power to do so. I can not however "enforce" it. If you want to criticize please learn to read first.
Smoking is the cause of 87% of lung cancer deaths yet the big tobbaco companies continue to thrive both here and abroad. My Mom (a smoke) died of the same disease and I've spent a great deal of my life trying to alert young people to the dangers of the habit. You can and should do the same before you too lose a loved one or a good friend.
Smoking causes 0.0% of any cancers...a weakened immune system caused by smoking allows the virus that causes cancer to cause cancer deaths...
What about her husband & did she EVER SMOKE? Did she smoke in the 70's & 80's? Summers died in her Naples, FL home - USA Today had the WHERE wrong.
Thanks Asher2, Donna Summer was a SMOKER!
I remember a picture of her in Rolling Stone smoking. She smoked and that's a fact. Still, tragic.
It depends on what your definition of "is" is. Donna Summer may not have been a current smoker, but a tabloid TV show has been showing video of her smoking a cigarette in the '70's.
Foundry workers get lung cancer whether or not they smoke. Those of you who travel in vehicles with cast metal engine blocks, transmission housings, and/or differential housings cause their deaths.
Indeed many smokers "Did it to themselves", so what? We live in a society where many of our injuries are self-inflicted, (extreme sports..etc.) These people often are given support and sympathy, as they should be. The mean comments that I have seen smokers put up with are uncalled for in my opinion. What if Donna had smoked? Would she be less of a jewel? Certainly not deserving of any posthumus criticism as far as I'm concerned. Smoking is surely not good for you, but there are worse things going on in the world today. I think anti-smoking advocates take it too far sometimes, almost bordering on hate crime in some instances. Rest in peace Donna, you sweet thing.
http://www.livescience.com/3093-smoking-myths-examined.html
Surprisingly, fewer than 10 percent of lifelong smokers will get lung cancer. Fewer yet will contract the long list of other cancers, such as throat or mouth cancers. In the game of risk, you're more likely to have a condom break than to get cancer from smoking.
My Father, a life long smoker, got throat cancer and died from side effects of the cancer....the doc said that particular cancer happens in people who smoke or drink a lot.
Mercifully, he did not die from the cancer itself---an old ulcer that was aggravated by the cancer medicine actually caused him to bleed to death....which is a painless way to go: He pretty much just fell asleep due to blood loss.
But, he did it to himself....what can I say.
A former co-worker who never smoked died of lung cancer not too long ago. I was told that she had been exposed to asbestos at one time. My uncle, who also never smoked, has been treated for lung cancer twice and is at this time in remission. On the other hand, my father, who was a heavy smoker, also died from lung cancer. So I know it can happen either way.
A co-worker, who never smoked, died from lung cancer a couple of years ago. With her, it was exposure to asbestos. My uncle, who is 81 and also never smoked, has been treated for lung cancer twice and is currently in remission. My dad was a heavy smoker and died from lung cancer at the age of 61 (just one year older than I am now). So I know it can happen either way.
Oops, posted twice, sorry.