Why Lung Cancer Hits Women Harder

Lung cancer kills more women each year of breast cancer. In fact, lung cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death among men and women, statistics show that it is a growing problem for women in particular, as shown by a predisposition to develop lung cancer.

However, lung cancer poses additional risks and problems for women, and these can be generalized in an important way, and that has to do with smoking.

Approximately 90% of all lung cancer deaths among women are a direct result of smoking or breathing in someone else second-hand smoke. (This is known as passive smoking).

Although research has shown that smoking causes a wide range of very serious health effects, 1 in 5 women in the United States and other Western countries still smoke with this number increasing with alarming regularity every year, despite widespread publicity show how dangerous it is.

Several research studies have been done indicate that women ex-smokers may still have a significantly higher risk of developing lung cancer, even 20 years after quitting smoking. However, it is fair to say that once they stop smoking, the overall risk of developing cancer of the lung is not falling.

According to an article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2005:

Smokers are more likely than male smokers to develop lung cancer,

Women who have never smoked are more likely to develop lung cancer than men who never smoked.

These differences are due to hormonal, hereditary, metabolic and differences between the sexes.

Smokers are 13 times more likely to die of lung cancer than women who never smoked, and female former smokers are 5 times more likely to die of lung cancer as women who never smoked.

Women, even if they never smoked, should be aware of their higher risks. Because of the high risks that smoking causes lung cancer and a host of other serious diseases, female smokers, in particular, should think very carefully about quitting smoking as soon as possible, because even if their story passed the smoke does not make them more susceptible to developing lung cancer, at least, the overall risk decreases once quit smoking.