SATURDAY MARCH 1, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Barbara Seaman, a writer and patients' rights advocate who brought people' attention to the risks of oral contraceptives among other things, died from lung cancer on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan, the New York Times reported. She was 72.

One of influential works Seaman completed is probably her first book, "The Doctor's Case Against the Pill" published in 1969. It argued that oral contraceptives containing high doses of estrogen pose serious risks to health or even life including heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, cancer and suicidal depression, but doctors often failed to inform women of these risks.

Seaman voice eventually led to a hearing at the Senate in 1970 led by Gaylord Nelson on the safety of oral contraceptives, which in turn resulted in a requirement that birth control pills carry a printed warning about the risks.

  Lung cancer has a very bad prognosis when the patients receive conventional treatments and prevention should be the main focus. Those who have been diagnosed with lung cancer are encouraged to seek other types of treatments.   We hope that most of patients can avoid the fate Seaman had.

For more information about lung cancer, read Lung Cancer: What you need to know