Women without risk factors twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States — and it’s disproportionately affecting some women.

“It’s sadly taking more lives than breast and cervical and ovarian cancers combined,” said Laurie Ambrose, president and CEO of Go2 for Lung Cancer, an advocacy group that supports lung cancer patients and families, while seeking advances in screening, detection and treatment of the disease.

Overall, lung cancer will kill more than 230,000 Americans this year.

“We are seeing women, who have no known risk factors, are twice as likely than men to get lung cancer,” said Ambrose. “So, these nonsmokers, you see twice the number of women being diagnosed than men, and we don’t know why.”

On Tuesday, the group will host more than 200 people living with lung cancer as well as caregivers, doctors and researchers on Capitol Hill. They hope to secure funding for research of the disease. They are also advocating for support of a bill that would bring a focus on why women are being diagnosed in such high numbers.

“Half of lung cancers impact women, and women are half the workforce, are managing families, and are caregivers to others,” Ambrose said.

The Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventative Services Act — which was introduced in the House as H.R. 4534 and in the Senate as S. 2245, would require the secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the secretary of Defense and secretary of Veterans Affairs, to do an interagency review on women and lung cancer, improve access to preventive services, and conduct public awareness campaigns on lung cancer.

“It would elevate the necessary awareness that this is the leading cause of cancer death for women, and it would encourage women who are at risk to seek screening, that is available now, through low-dose CT scans to find, detect, treat and cure this disease,” said Ambrose.

Lung cancer advocates have pointed out that despite the lethality of the disease, federal funding has lagged far behind other cancers. In addition to pushing the bill to intensify focus on women and lung cancer, the group hopes to persuade lawmakers to pass legislation to secure $60 million in funding for research of the disease in the fiscal 2025 budget.

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