LUGANO, Switzerland, May 4 (UPI) -- Women are more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking than men, contracting the disease at younger ages, a Swiss study has determined.
A study performed at the St. Gallen Canton Hospital found that female smokers tended to develop lung cancer at a younger age than men, even if they had smoked fewer cigarettes, the British tabloid The Daily Mail reported Monday.
The newspaper said the hospital looked at 683 lung cancer patients treated between 2000 and 2005 and found that female smokers were statistically more likely to develop the adenocarcinoma form of lung cancer, and at an earlier age than men.
"Our findings suggest that women may have an increased susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens," study leader Martin Frueh said Sunday in presenting the findings at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology in Lugano, Switzerland.
Henry Scowcroft of Cancer Research U.K., however, cautioned against making generalizations about the likelihood of cancer between the sexes, telling the Mail, "These scientists only studied patients referred to a single cancer center, and did not look at biological differences between men's and women's lung cancers."
