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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.

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"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.

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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."

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