Lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of deaths from cancer in the United States. It kills more than 150,000 people every year. About half of all cases of lung cancer appear to be related to smoking, but smoking may be more dangerous to women than it is to men. Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found that women develop lung cancer in different ways than men. That difference means that alternate methods may be needed to determine women's cancer risk.
Women appear to be more susceptible to the harm of the cancer-causing chemicals in cigarette smoke.
Even considerating body size and smoking history, this increased danger persists, leading doctors to believe that smoke actually has a different effect on women. Pre-cancerous lesions in the lungs and airways are signs of an increased risk for lung cancer. Risk often is assessed by measuring how air flow is obstructed by these lesions. But UT Southwestern doctors found that women tend to develop pre-cancerous lesions in the outer parts of the lung. Men tend to develop lesions in the central airways.