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My father has lung cancer. So far he isn't in any pain, but it's just a matter of time. He never smoked though his parents did. Apparently, it's a fluke for an eightysomething non smoker to get lung cancer.
Not always a fluke...as we reach that age alot of systems let go, like the immunal system, and so cancers can take hold.
This is seen most obviously in people with HIV...one of the things they get is called Karpesci's sarcoma (sp?) I cannot remember the spelling, but anyway it appears in people with HIV as deep purple bruise-like growths of skinn cancser as there is no immunal system to fight the disease off.
We are surrounded by cancer, virus and disease, moulds and bacteria 24/7.
Our immunal systems are on task 24/7 fighting all the crud all around and inside of us.
There is also the fact that elderly folks grew up in a much different world.
They did not wear ear and eye protection and exposed themsolves to many horrible chemicals we know know as carcinogenic.
Even in my lifetime we were subjected to chemicals in the workplace and breathing that has caused many many deaths, mesothelioma by ship builders, welder's lung, coal miners, old people lived damgerously !
And at 80, he has lived a good long life !
Oddly enough, I think, not sure, but more cigarette smokers die or get, bladder and kidney cancer first, quite a big %...not all smokers die of lung cancer, the carcinogenic items in cigarette smoke run through the whole body, and attack what they think is the weakest area in the person.
Weaknessess can be genetic also, a lovely gift passed down in families.
So no it is not too strange for an 80 year old non smoker to have lung cancer.
