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BETHESDA, Md., Jun 01, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers said, given equal smoking rates, men and women have a similar susceptibility to lung cancer.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute said lung cancer once was thought a disease that mainly affected men, but lung cancer rates in women have been rising over the last century as more and more women have become smokers.
Now, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in American women.
They examined 60,296 women and 25,397 men. After controlling for age, number of cigarettes smoked each day, age a person began smoking, and time since quitting, they found no difference between men and women in overall lung cancer susceptibility.
The researchers also reviewed six other, published studies that had examined the issue. When smoking rates were equal, none of the studies showed that women had a higher risk of lung cancer than men.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
