Lung cancer kills so many women.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States.
Last year year some 80,000 new cases of lung cancer occurred in women and 70,000 women died of the disease. The cancer is so deadly because it is usually diagnosed after it has spread elsewhere in the body. However, when the cancer is still confined to the lung, the chances for successful treatment are increased considerably by removing the lesion surgically. Currently no screening tool is recommended for detecting the cancer. The new study, which is supported by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's Better Health for Women Program, will determine whether CT scans can effectively detect lung cancer at a stage when surgery is feasible.