Lung cancer risk twice as high for women smokers: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Cigarette-smoking women run twice the
risk of lung cancer as men who smoke but are far less likely to
die from the disease than males, according to a study published
on Tuesday.

Why women are more susceptible to the cancer-causing agents
in cigarette smoke is not clear, the report said, but the
findings indicate that women who smoke should be screened
sooner and targeted with anti-smoking messages earlier.

The conclusions, from researchers at New York-Presbyterian
Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, were
based on 7,498 women and 9,427 men, at least 40 years of age
and with a history of cigarette smoking, who were checked for
lung cancer between 1993 and 2005.

When the study started none had lung cancer. Later 156
women and 113 men developed the disease.

“Given the same exposure, women are less likely to die from
lung cancer than men, but they also have double the risk of
getting the disease,” said Claudia Henschke, the physician who
led the study. “We’re not really sure why that might be.”

Overall, women were 52 percent less likely to die of the
disease, said the report published in this week’s Journal of
the American Medical Association.

Henschke said public health officials need to warn
teen-aged girls especially that they face a higher risk of lung
cancer.