Cancer death rate higher in nonsmoking men

Study contradicts conventional wisdom about gender

Lung cancer isn't common in people who never smoked. But when they do get it, doctors have long thought that women were more likely to die than men. New research suggests the opposite.

Analyzing medical records of nearly 1 million people, American Cancer Society researchers reported Tuesday that men who never used cigarettes actually had slightly higher death rates from lung cancer than women who never smoked.

"The conventional wisdom ... is wrong," concluded Dr. Michael Thun, lead author of the report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

However, more black women who had never smoked died of lung cancer than their white counterparts.

Lung cancer is the world's and the United States' most common and deadliest malignancy. Smoking cigarettes is the main cause.

But about 15,000 of the deaths will occur in people who never used cigarettes. Other known causes: breathing secondhand smoke; exposure to radon and asbestos; smoking other tobacco products; and high-dose radiation.

The gender issue made headlines this spring when lung cancer claimed lifelong nonsmoker Dana Reeve, widow of "Superman" movie star Christopher Reeve.

Thun analyzed two cancer-prevention studies that tracked more than 940,000 Americans' health for 20 years.

Among never-smokers, the death rate from lung cancer per 100,000 people was 17.1 for men and 14.7 for women in the most recent of the two studies; the earlier study showed similar rates.

What's the root of the gender misconception?

Lung cancer usually strikes older people, and there are far more women than men over age 60 who have never smoked -- 16.2 million such women vs. just 6.4 million men. So doctors are caring for more female never-smokers, even though they're not at higher risk, Thun said.