Once thought to be a male predominant disease, lung cancer is now killing more women than breast, ovarian and cervical cancers combined. Researchers say because the cancer was thought to be associated with smoking and primarily affected men, most women assumed if they never smoked or quit years ago, the cancer would not be a possibility. In fact, two-thirds of female cancer victims quit at least 10 years earlier or never smoked. In a new report prepared by Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, results indicate that women are now more likely to die from lung cancer, they are more likely to develop the cancer at younger ages than men, and women who do not smoke are two- to three-times at greater risk for developing the disease. (Source: Lung Cancer Alliance, "Out of the Shadows," May 2010)