Lung Cancer

Edward DeHart, 71, a tobacco industry consultant who in 1962 helped craft the first surgeon general's warning label printed on all cigarette packs sold in the United States, died Wednesday of lung cancer in Miami.Pub Date: 9/29/97

Michaela Odone, 61, whose efforts to develop a treatment for her son's rare disease inspired the movie "Lorenzo's Oil," died of lung cancer Saturday at her home in Fairfax, Va. She and her husband, Augusto, had no medical training but helped develop a combination of olive and rapeseed oils that they used to treat their son Lorenzo's rare degenerative brain disease, adrenoleukodystrophy.

Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen was looking for a way to join the fight against lung cancer. The traditional fundraiser - the 5k run - was out. Sachs-Kohen hates running. Instead, the assistant rabbi at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and several dozen fellow yoga enthusiasts will be taking to the mats today for what they're calling the Free to Breathe Yogathon. On the first day of Lung Cancer Awareness Month, they plan to earn pledges by performing the sun salutation, a sequence of body positions in hatha yoga.

Smoking causes lung cancer. That much is known. But three new studies published today suggest that genes might play a role in why some longtime smokers get the deadly disease and others do not. The scientists say these common genetic variations might also make smokers more likely to become addicted to tobacco and to smoke more cigarettes. The findings, which several experts said mark the first time that a genetic variation has been linked to lung cancer, could lead to a greater understanding of how smoking and genes interact to cause the disease.

WHAT WOMEN don't know - or don't act upon - can kill them. Lung cancer causes more women to die each year than breast cancer and gynecological cancers combined, with 68,800 deaths last year. And the vast majority of cases are preventable, through lifestyle changes, awareness campaigns and targeted medical care. Some still prefer to think of lung cancer as largely a male affliction, but the number of women falling ill has grown steadily during the last two decades, reflecting the increase in the number of women who have started smoking since the 1960s.

About 45 million Americans are former smokers who, by quitting cigarettes, have dramatically cut their chances of getting heart disease, stroke and many cancers. But roughly a quarter will die from diseases caused by their old habit, experts say. New science is helping explain why cigarettes' threat doesn't vanish. National Cancer Institute researchers have examined cells from the lungs and lung tumors of 28 smokers, 26 ex-smokers and 20 people who never smoked but still developed lung cancer.

* Joseph J. Ferro, a former New York City buildings commissioner, died of a heart attack Saturday at Astoria General Hospital in Queens. He was 90 and lived in Queens.* The Rev. Timothy G. Sheehan, a federal drug enforcement agent who became a priest and later managed the finances of the Diocese of Brooklyn, died of lung cancer Saturday at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, N.Y. He was 53 and lived in the diocesan chancery residence in Brooklyn.* Yoram Ben-Porath, president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a leading Israeli economist, died in an car accident near Eilat on Sunday.

Irving S. TockmanDentistDr. Irving S. Tockman, a retired Chicago dentist who lived in Baltimore in the early 1980s and again for the past year, died Monday of complications of lung cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 75.In retirement, he had been a resident of Miami, where he and hiswife, the former Edna Schultz, who survives him, started a senior center.Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today in Wilmette, Ill. Other survivors include a son, Dr. Melvyn S. Tockman of Baltimore; a daughter, Janet Tockman Kernis of Wilmette; and three grandchildren.

On Sunday, September 18, 2005, MARGARET ELAINE BLAU died peacefully in her home with her son and daughter at her side. During her brief battle with lung cancer, she kept her sense of humor and positive attitude to the end. Peg worked passionately as an Occupational Therapist for over 30 years, most recently for Howard County Schools. Peg is survived by her son, daughter and two sisters. A memorial service will be held at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center on Wednesday, September 21, at 5 P.M. Please omit flowers.

* May Davies Hopkins Martenet, 85, a novelist and short-story writer, died of complications stemming from lung cancer June 6 at the Westminster-Canterbury retirement home in Virginia Beach, Va., where she had lived since 1985.* Frantz Casseus, 77, a guitarist and composer, died of heart failure June 3 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.* Marlo Lewis, 77, a TV producer who was co-creator of "The Ed Sullivan Show," died of heart failure Tuesday at a hospital in Palm Springs, Calif.