»Higher rate of lung cancer found in nonsmoker women

It has been found that for women, the lung cancer incidence rate in never-smokers ranged from 14.4 to 20.8 cases per 100,000 person-years.

In men, it ranged from 4.8 to 13.7 incidents.

For current smokers, the rates were found to be about 10 to 30 times higher.

To put these numbers in perspective, Wakelee pointed out that the rates for cervical and thyroid cancer in women of the same age range are comparable, at 15.4 and 17.3 cases per 100,000 person-years, respectively.

Not all lung cancer occurrance is due to lifetime of smoking cigarettes. Sometimes the diagnosis of lung caner is a mystery, and the stigma surrounding the disease makes it hard for the patient of lung caner to talk about.