Is it true that women smokers are more likely than men to get lung cancer?

In the 1990s, several small studies suggested that women who smoke were more likely than men who smoke to develop lung cancer. However, a recent large study found that women and men who have smoked about the same amount have a similar risk for developing lung cancer. This finding confirms the results of other large studies.

The recent study is one of the largest to look at this question. Researchers studied 60,230 women and 25,400 men who were current or former smokers. They collected information about how old these people were when they began to smoke, how much they smoked, how many years they smoked, and for the ex-smokers, how long it had been since they quit.

The researchers compared lung cancer rates among those who smoked a similar amount. They did not find evidence that women are at higher risk of lung cancer than men.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women and men in the United States, and smoking is the most important cause. It's never too late to quit smoking. The risk of cancer for people who quit is lower than the risk for people who continue to smoke.

For help with quitting, call your state quitline. If your state does not have a quitline, call the Smoking Quitline of the National Cancer Institute at 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-488-7848) 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. For quitting assistance online between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday to Friday, visit the National Cancer Institute, click on "Need Help?" and choose "connect to LiveHelp."

choose back button for more from this category, or below for CIS index