Lung cancer deaths for women down

WASHINGTON, April 1 (UPI) -- After peaking almost a decade ago, the death rate from lung cancer among women has seen a "statistically significant" decline, researchers say.

A report Thursday from the National Cancer Institute said the decline comes more than a decade after the rates among men began dropping because large numbers of women who had taken up smoking finally began kicking the habit, The Washington Post reported.

"They took it up a little later, so their increase has had a slow rise and now it's finally starting to turn around," Brenda Edwards of the institute said.

The death rate among women peaked in 2002 and dropped almost 1 percent annually through at least 2007, the researchers found.

"Lung cancer deaths in women are now showing a statistically significant decline. It's the first time," Edwards said.

In addition to lung cancer, the death rates from many leading cancers have been falling, a paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said.

"This is good news, and maybe the country can use a little good news about now," David Cutler, an economist at Harvard University who studies the impact of tobacco, said.

Still, lung cancer remains the leading cause of death from cancer, and several experts said they worry about the future.

"It seems everywhere I turn, I see young women smoking," Craig Jordan, scientific director of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, said. "Frankly, we have to do a better job at countering the efforts of cigarette marketers for the sake of public health."