Lung cancer kills 70,000 U.S. women a year

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BOSTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Non-smoking women appear to be two-to-three times more likely than non-smoking men to get lung cancer, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the Women's Health Policy and Advocacy Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Lung Cancer Alliance in Washington said in a report lung cancer kills more U.S. women than any other cancer -- nearly 200 women each day and most will die within one year of diagnosis. Approximately 70,500 U.S. women will die annually from lung cancer, the report said.

The report, Out of the Shadows, said more than 25,000 women who never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer each year.

Research shows women with lung cancer have smoked less on average -- 31 pack years vs. 52 pack years -- than their male counterparts, are younger and are two-to-three times more likely than their male counterparts never to have smoked.

Of all major cancers, lung cancer in women is the least funded in terms of research dollars per death -- $1,438 per death compared to $36,945 per death of cervical cancer and $28,313 per death for breast cancer, the report said.