Smokers’ risks differ by gender

Cigarette-smoking women run twice the risk of lung cancer as men who smoke but are far less likely to die from the disease than males, a new study says.

Why women are more susceptible to the cancer-causing agents in cigarette smoke is not clear, the report said, but the findings indicate that women who smoke should be screened sooner and targeted with anti-smoking messages earlier.

The conclusions, from researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, were based on 7,498 women and 9,427 men, at least 40 years of age and with a history of cigarette smoking, who were checked for lung cancer between 1993 and 2005. When the study started none had lung cancer. Later, 156 women and 113 men developed the disease.

Overall, women were 52% less likely to die of the disease, said the report published in the July 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.