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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Women Smokers have Higher Risk of Lung Cancer than
Men, but Lower Death Rate
Still, lung cancer kills more women than breast and
colon cancer combined
July 11, 2006 - Lung cancer now accounts for more
deaths in women than any other cancer, even more than the second and
third cancer killers (breast and colon cancer) combined. A new study
indicates women smokers are more susceptible to lung cancer than men,
but, despite this, they have a lower rate of lung cancer-related deaths
than men.
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Health & Medicine |
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In 2006 in the United States, it is estimated that
lung cancer will cause 73,020 deaths in women, proportionately only
slightly fewer than the estimated 90,470 deaths in men, says the article
in the July 12 issue of JAMA.
It has been hypothesized that women are more
susceptible to tobacco carcinogens than men, but after diagnosis of lung
cancer, they have better survival rates than men.
Claudia I. Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., of Cornell
University, New York, and investigators with the International Early
Lung Cancer Action Program examined the lung cancer risk of women
compared with men, accounting for age and history of smoking, and also
compared the rate of fatal outcomes between sexes.
The study included
7,498 women and 9,427 men, at least 40 years of age, who had a history
of cigarette smoking and were screened for lung cancer in North America
between 1993 and 2005.
Lung cancer was diagnosed in 156 women and 113 men
(rates of 2.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively). The researchers
also found that women had a lower rate of lung cancer-related death,
when controlling for pack-years of smoking, disease stage, tumor cell
type and resection.
If lung cancer risk for women who smoke is indeed
higher than the risk for men of the same age who smoke, as indicated by
the evidence presented here, this suggests that antismoking efforts
directed toward girls and women need to be even more serious than those
directed toward boys and men, the authors write.
Editorial: Women And Lung
Cancer Gender Equality At A Crossroad?
In an accompanying editorial, Alfred I. Neugut,
M.D., Ph.D., and Judith S. Jacobson, Dr.P.H., M.B.A., of Columbia
University, New York, comment on the study by Henschke et al.
The reasons women live with lung cancer longer
than men are unclear, they write. Do women fare better because of
their body size, better health behaviors, hormonal and reproductive
factors, different cigarette smoking histories or patterns, or other
factors? Womens stage-for-stage advantage in survival appears to be a
host effect and applies to all the major histological types of lung
cancer.
The once prevalent adage, Youve come a long way,
Baby! geared to female smokers, unfortunately now applies to increased
smoking prevalence and lung cancer risk among women. To prevent gender
equality in lung cancer from becoming a reality, its now time to turn
back.
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