Christy Houvouras, 37, still exercises daily after surgeons removed 20% of her lung to treat her lung cancer.
Christy Houvouras, 37, reads to her son before bedtime in Huntington, West Virginia.
Christy Houvouras plays doctors with her 3-year-old daughter at her home in Huntington, West Virginia.

Christy Houvouras exercises daily, eats right and has smoked fewer than 20 cigarettes in her lifetime.

That’s why she was shocked when she was diagnosed with lung cancer at just 36 years old in July.

“It was really unfair,” said the mother of two from Huntington, West Virginia. “I do everything I can in my control to take care of myself… It did not make sense that I had something that was associated with an unhealthy person and unhealthy habits.”

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.

Traditionally, this type of cancer is associated with older patients, specifically in men who smoked, said Dr. Iona Baiu, thoracic surgeon at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says up to 20% of new diagnoses are now made in people who have never smoked. And they’re mostly occurring in women, Baiu said.

“Overall, the number of lung cancer incidences is slowly decreasing but it’s not decreasing nearly as fast in women as men,” she said. “We’re seeing a shift in trends now and seeing patients who are younger and patients who are never smokers, who we never used to see.”

Cancer experts say radon levels in the home, air pollution and genetic mutations are mainly driving this trend.

Radon is odorless, colorless radioactive gas that forms when radioactive metals – such as uranium, thorium and radium – break down in rocks, soil and groundwater, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. People are typically exposed to radon through cracks and gaps in buildings and homes.

Houvouras suspects she was exposed to radon in her childhood home in Greenville, South Carolina, which the EPA has designated as having the highest potential for elevated indoor radon levels.

“The crazy thing about lung cancer is that you can be exposed at a young age and then you won’t have a developing tumor until decades later,” she said. Her diagnosis led Houvouras to install a radon mitigation system in her home to protect her 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

Despite being a lung cancer patient, Houvouras still considers herself lucky. Her cancer was caught as stage 1, which meant she only needed surgery to remove the tumor and 20% of her lung without further treatments like chemotherapy.

Within three weeks of her diagnosis, she was recovering at home from surgery, cancer-free.

“At stage 1, lung cancer can be surgically removed, usually without the need for further treatment like chemotherapy,” said Baiu, who is also an assistant professor at Ohio State College of Medicine. “At stage 2, the lung cancer has spread to the lymph nodes and patients will need systemic therapy in addition to surgery.”

It’s important to catch lung cancer early but annual screening recommendations only target patients who smoke or have a smoking history. That’s why cancer experts say knowing the signs and symptoms of lung cancer could make all the difference for nonsmoking patients.

Some of the most common symptoms of lung cancer include a persistent cough, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, shortness of breath and new onset wheezing, among others, according to the American Cancer Society.

For Houvouras, it was a swollen area on her chest. She brought it up to her obstetrician during an annual wellness visit, which kicked off multiple tests and scans that ultimately confirmed her cancer diagnosis.

These “accidental” cancer diagnoses among young, nonsmoker patients are more common than people might think, Baiu said. She urges patients to advocate for themselves and their health, as Houvouras did.

“Christy is the perfect example of health. She exercises, she eats healthy, she never smokes, never drinks, she does everything by the book, and she was 36. Nobody would have expected lung cancer in her," she said. “She advocated for herself, which I think is really important and I encourage patients to do as well.”

Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lung cancer is becoming more common among young, healthy women. Here's why.

Reporting by Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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