Five cancer myths exposed

Smoking

The myth: Female smokers face a greater lung cancer risk than male smokers

Some early-1990s studies might have led you to think that simply being a woman increases your odds of getting lung cancer. But later research shows that women are no more vulnerable to tobacco smoke carcinogens than men. "In both women and men, current smokers of two or more packs per day were about 50 times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who had never smoked," says Neal Freedman, PhD, a National Cancer Institute Cancer Prevention Fellow, who has tracked nearly 500,000 women and men to identify the incidence of lung cancer.

 

Non-smoking women are also no more likely to get lung cancer than non-smoking men. But lung cancer does kill more women than any other kind, breast cancer included. And although it was found that women who smoke are about 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smoking women, consistent exposure to secondhand smoke increases a non-smoker's risk of lung cancer by 20 to 30 per cent.

 

So avoid secondhand smoke as much as possible, says Freedman. And if you do smoke - STOP! You'll substantially lower your risk of lung cancer, as well as heart disease and bladder and throat cancer.

 

See our Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009 special