Women now have lung cancer more often than men

Why do more and more women get lung cancer??

There is a disturbing trend: More and more women are developing lung cancer. In the past, men were more likely to get lung cancer than women. This seems to have changed now.

The scientists of the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute have found in their current study that more and more women suffer from lung cancer. Meanwhile, even more women are affected by lung cancer than men. The physicians published the results of their study in the English language journal "New England Journal of Medicine".

More and more women are now suffering from lung cancer. In the meantime, even more women than men are developing this form of cancer. One reason for that is certainly smoking. (Image: anoushkatoronto / fotolia.com)

Stop smoking!

The good news is that fewer and fewer people between the ages of 30 and 60 have lung cancer. The reason for this is probably clear: fewer and fewer people are smoking. Still, more than 25 percent of cancer deaths in the US are caused by smoking, say the experts. So if people want to look after their health and avoid cancer, they should stop smoking.

Women between the ages of 30 and 49 are more likely to have cancer than men

Men have been diagnosed with lung cancer more often than women for decades, but a study of women of the so-called Generation X (women born in the 1960s and 1970s) found that this trend has changed. Since men were smokers of cigarettes more often than women in earlier generations, men had ever higher lung cancer rates than women. However, this has changed in this day and age. Women between the ages of 30 and 49 are now more likely to have lung cancer than men of the same age, explain the physicians.

Special cigarettes led to more female smokers

Given the fact that cigarette manufacturers increasingly marketed cigarette brands to women starting in the 1970s, the result is not surprising. The first cigarette designed specifically for women, Virginia Slims, was launched in 1968. At that time, the advertising campaign aimed to link cigarette smoking with the women's liberation movement.

In the 1990s, the smoking rate of women rose dramatically

In fact, smoking behavior has changed over time and more and more women have adopted the unhealthy habit, even though women still smoked a little less than men. The smoking rate among women and girls rose dramatically in the 1990s, certainly due to the commercialization of tobacco companies. Special cigarettes for women, such as Philip Morris' Virginia Slims, have apparently helped make women smoke more and more often, said study author Ahmedin Jemal of the American Cancer Society

Which women are particularly at risk??

Between 1995 and 1999, the incidence of lung cancer (number of cases per 100,000 women per year) was 26 per cent lower in women aged 44 to 49 than in men of the same age. But between 2010 and 2014, the incidence of lung cancer in these women was eight percent higher than in men, explain the physicians. The higher lung cancer rate in women applies to non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women, the researchers added. Although the lung cancer rate in female non-Hispanic blacks and Asians and Pacific Islanders in the US is not higher than that of men, it is approaching that value, the experts explain.

There are three hypotheses

Because women still smoke slightly less than men, scientists believe that another factor could play an important role. There are three hypotheses about what could have contributed to the increased cancer risk of women, explains Jemal.

Can women stop smoking more seriously??

Some studies suggest that women who smoke are less likely to quit smoking compared to smoking men. Over time, risk of developing lung cancer is reduced when people stop smoking, even though the risk of so-called adenocarcinoma is elevated for a longer period of time after cessation of smoking. In general, lung cancer risk decreases by 25 percent in the first five years after cessation. After a decade, it then decreases by 50 percent. If people stop smoking for 20 or more years, the risk is even reduced by 90 percent, the expert adds.

Are women just more susceptible to smoking??

It's also possible that women are more susceptible to the negative health effects of smoking, which gets worse over time, explains Jemal. Moreover, the emergence of so-called light cigarettes has changed the smoking behavior so that the risk of cancer increases. The volume of the trains is greater and the frequency of trains is higher, so that the relative risk of lung cancer in smoking 25 times higher than non-smokers fail, says Jemal.

Women are more likely to get non-smoking lung cancer?

About two to three decades ago, smokers' cancer risk increased 10-fold compared to nonsmokers, which was attributed to tobacco use, the researchers explain. However, about ten percent of men and 15 percent of women with lung cancer have never smoked. Therefore, it is also possible that some women are more susceptible to non-smoking lung cancer, explains Jemal. However, there is still no evidence for this thesis.

Non-smokers live longer

The message continues that people should give up smoking in the interests of their health, the researchers emphasize. Also, the sooner smokers quit smoking, the better. If people stop smoking at the age of 30, they will be able to gain an average of about 10 additional years of life, while a person in their 60s will live an average of three or four years longer by quitting. No matter what your age, it is always wise to stop smoking. It is best, however, if people do not even start smoking, explain the doctors. (As)