By Jordan Baker
Louise Kuchel could not shake her cough. “It was not even important, it was in the background but I thought I’d better get it checked out,” she said. Her doctors were puzzled; they suspected it might be a throat irritation or reflux.
No-one thought about lung cancer. Kuchel was 51, fit and had never smoked. But last year, a pain in her lower ribs prompted further tests. Her cancer was at stage four; it had spread. The doctor told her it was incurable and inoperable.
Louise Kuchel thought she had a mild cough. The truth was shocking. Credit: Nikki Short
“It’s devastating,” she said. “It’s absolutely upturned my entire life and my whole family’s life. I’m also really devastated at the lack of awareness and the stigma. Considering it’s our biggest [cancer] killer, why does no-one know about it?”
Lung cancer has long been thought of as a disease suffered by male smokers. But as smoking rates fall, a new phenomenon has emerged around the world; a rise in diagnoses among women who have never touched a cigarette.
Illness and death among women is also rising, albeit off a low base, while it plummets among men. Australian statistics show 18.2 cases and 16.7 deaths per 100,000 women in 1983, compared with 37.7 cases and 22.7 deaths in 2018.
Wenona School principal Briony Scott is a lung cancer survivor Credit: Domino Postiglione
Kuchel had never smoked. Neither had Briony Scott, the principal of Wenona in North Sydney, who was diagnosed in 2015 and has been trying to raise awareness and bust the stigma around lung cancer since.
“We don’t really research lung cancer,” said Scott. “The reason we don’t is there is a stigma attached to it, on par with AIDS and mental health. It’s such a traumatic cancer to get because everybody takes three steps back.
“If I had diabetes, they’d lean towards me. If I had breast cancer, they’d run towards me. [If it’s lung cancer], they step back and say put your affairs in order, it’s your fault.”
A Global Lung Cancer Coalition survey last year found almost one in three Australians had less sympathy for people with lung cancer than other forms of cancer.
Despite her cough, Kuchel had been fit and healthy. She jogged and rode a bike. Doctors had been looking for a link to her stomach or oesophagus, until her rib pain led to the discovery of a lump, which led to her diagnosis.
These days, up to 20 per cent of lung cancer cases are identified in non-smokers, and of those, women between 40 and 79 are more likely to develop lung cancer than men.
The causes could be environmental, hormonal or genetic; last year, a Lancet study found air pollution could be a key trigger. But research is still in its infancy.
Australia is considering introducing lung cancer screening for high-risk patients, which would include smokers and former smokers, but not people such as Kuchel. At present, more than 40 per cent of diagnoses occur at stage four, when survival rates are low.
“It feels so archaic, for a developed country, that we’re no further ahead on something like this,” says Kuchel. “We’re turning our back on something that really requires our attention.”
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