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Lung cancer deadlier than breast cancer for women

Gains in early diagnosis coupled with new treatments are spurring hopes for increased survival rates in lung cancer patients.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Dec. 1, 2003.

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Washington -- Lung cancer has had the dubious and little-known distinction of being the leading cancer killer of U.S. women since 1987. Many people mistakenly continue to rank breast cancer as claiming the most lives because it is the most common cancer among the nation's women.

However, this misconception is a case of deadly confusion.

Lung cancer will be responsible for 25% of women's cancer deaths this year, while breast cancer will account for 15%, according to American Cancer Society estimates. Survival rates for breast cancer have also surged far beyond those for lung cancer.

While five-year survival rates for lung cancer are now 15% -- only slightly better than the 12% survival rates of 30 years ago -- survival rates for breast cancer have reached 88%.

"Women in the United States have the highest rate of lung cancer in the world, and they don't even know it," said Sheila Ross, Washington representative of the Alliance for Lung Cancer Advocacy, Support and Education and a lung cancer survivor. She was speaking at a Nov. 13 Capitol Hill briefing.

Researchers at the event also noted that while rates of lung cancer have been declining among men for many years, women's rates have increased until very recently, when they began to level off.

In addition, compared with men, women who smoke are more likely to develop lung cancer at a younger age and as a result of being exposed to lower levels of smoke.

Women are also more likely than men to develop small-cell lung cancer, which spreads quickly, and adenocarcinoma, which accounts for about 40% of lung cancer cases in women.