Harvard Health Content API

Few American women realize that lung cancer is more likely to kill them than any other type of cancer, a new survey shows. Asked to pick the top killer of women from a list of cancers, 51% picked breast cancer. Only 22% picked lung cancer. The American Lung Association (ALA) did the survey. It included 1,000 women. About half of them said they were not concerned about lung cancer because they didn’t smoke. Among lifelong nonsmokers, two-thirds were not concerned. But about 10% of lung cancer cases occur among those who have never smoked. And 20% of women who die of lung cancer are nonsmokers. Other causes of lung cancer include long-term exposure to radon, asbestos or secondhand smoke. If just the lung cancers not related to smoking were counted separately, they would still rank among the top 10 U.S. cancers, an ALA official told HealthDay News.

A new study questions the way U.S. cervical-cancer rates are calculated and finds much higher estimates. Rates rose the most among women in their 60s and black women. Previous studies have included all women, even those who have had the uterus and cervix removed by hysterectomy. But the new study notes that a woman without a cervix would not be able to develop cervical cancer. Researchers used numbers on cervical cancer rates taken from a government registry in 18 states. They estimated hysterectomy numbers based on a national health survey. They calculated that about 11.7 cervical-cancer cases per 100,000 women are diagnosed each year. Rates were highest between ages 40 and 44 and then fell. But cervical cancer rates were 18.6 per 100,000 when only women who still had a cervix were included. And rates kept rising with age. The highest rates were between ages 65 and 69.