Kills more women than any other cancer
Lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer deaths for women in the United States, killing an estimated 73,000 women each year - more than breast and ovarian cancers combined.
Double risk for women
A study by I-ELCAP researchers found that women were twice as likely as men to develop lung cancer when comparing similar smoking histories. The study was published in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and involved 17,000 subjects from CT screening sites across North America. In the study, women were found to have 1.9 times the risk of developing lung cancer as men when the results were analyzed to control for age and smoking histories. This increased risk has been documented in other studies as well.
Based on this research, it is even more critical that teen girls and young women avoid smoking cigarettes, even on a social basis. The findings suggest that women's lung cancer risk can be significantly affected by even light tobacco smoking.
Benefits of early detection
While women are twice as likely to develop lung cancer, they are half as likely as men to die from it once it has developed. Because of this, women can gain even greater benefit from early detection CT screening.
Women and lung cancer in the news
The following sites have coverage of women and lung cancer risk: