Women and Lung Cancer
While breast cancer is the cancer that most women fear the
most, lung cancer is actually the number one cancer killer of American women.
Over the past 50 years, deaths from lung cancer in women have increased 5 times.
. .as has the incidence of smoking. Lung cancer accounts for one out of every
5 cancer deaths in women.
While lung cancer can affect women who don't smoke, women
who smoke are 12 times more likely to die from lung cancer than nonsmokers.
Other risk factors for lung cancer include second-hand smoke, asbestos exposure,
radon, radiation, chemical exposures, and chronic lung disease.
There is no reliable screening test for lung cancer, but
there is a reliable prevention strategy: don't start smoking, and if you do
smoke, quit. Smokers who can't quit should have an annual chest x-ray so that
lesions that do develop can be identified as early as possible.
For related information, click here.
Created: 3/21/2001  - Donnica Moore, M.D.