Lung cancer in women

Lung cancer takes more women's lives than reproductive & breast cancer combined.

A medical oncologist at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine has indicated that lung cancer is women's number one cancer killer.

According to Dr. Kathy S. Albain, "Lung cancer takes more women's lives than reproductive cancers and breast cancer combined. We must devote more resources to battling this devastating disease."

Albain is calling for more research funding targeted to examining why lung cancer is so deadly and why it affects men and women so differently.

"Cigarette smoke damages women's lungs more than men's lungs and lung cancer treatment affects women differently than men," she added.

Albain has been a principal or senior investigator for major national and international research into treating breast and lung cancer. She is the vice president of Women Against Lung Cancer (www.4WALC.org) which was established in 2001 to educate the public and health care professionals about the magnitude of the lung cancer problem in women.

WALC supports and encourages research in gender-related differences in the causes, treatments and prevention of lung cancer. WALC also mentors women health care professionals to pursue careers in lung cancer research.