DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My mother just turned 66 and just received word that she has lung cancer. She smoked from age 18 to 40. Doesn’t the cancer threat from smoking ever go away? She has no signs of illness. What are the symptoms supposed to be? Can you give me a rough idea of her chances and the treatments available to her? – K.K.

ANSWER: Even though most people believe that breast cancer is the leading cancer killer of women, it is not. Lung cancer is. Cigarette smoking is responsible for 85 percent of all lung cancers, and stopping smoking greatly decreases the risk. After 10 years of abstinence, the risk drops by 75 percent and keeps dropping every subsequent year, but it never reaches zero.

The two most prominent lung cancer signs are persistent cough and weight loss. Fifty percent of patients have either one or both. Forty percent are breathless when moving about, but breathlessness is a sign of just about all lung conditions, so it’s not a specific cancer indication. Other clues include weakness, chest pain, hoarseness, bloody sputum and fever.

Your mother’s chances of a good outcome depend on which kind of lung cancer she has, its size and how far it has spread. Treatment is predicated on those same features. Your mother will have more tests and scans that yield that information. Almost routinely, a biopsy of the cancer is done, and often removal of a chest lymph node is part of the investigation. Early-stage cancer that has not spread to distant organs or filled many chest lymph nodes is surgically removed and sometimes followed with chemotherapy, radiation or both to obtain a cure. More advanced cancers are treated with chemotherapy and radiation.

Your mother has some good things going for her. Being a woman is one. Women with lung cancer, on average, do better than men. If she has an early-stage cancer, if she has not lost weight and if her lungs function well, then her outlook brightens considerably.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Whenever I go to an air-conditioned movie theater, I get goose bumps. My boyfriend makes a big deal about this and says I need vitamins. Do I? What can I take to stop goose bumps? I am not uncomfortable with them, but I am embarrassed by the way my boyfriend carries on. – P.Z.

ANSWER: Every hair follicle – the sheath in which every strand of hair sits – has a tiny muscle attached to it. When that muscle contracts, the hair stands on end, and the skin puckers to form a goose bump. Cold, fright and excitement cause the muscle to contract.

Goose bumps are not a sign of vitamin deficiency. There is nothing you can take to prevent them. There is something you can do – bring a sweater to the theater.

Tell your boyfriend he is making a mountain out of a goose bump.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.