Briefing to address what women don't know about lung cancer

Sponsored by the Society for Women's Health Research

When: 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, November 13, 2003

Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building
Room G-11
Washington, DC 20510

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of American women. American women have the highest lung cancer mortality in the world. This year in the United States, according to National Cancer Institute estimates, 68,800 women will die of lung cancer. The number exceeds the combined total of breast cancer (39,800) uterine cancer (10,900) and ovarian cancer (14,300). Women smokers are 20 to 70 percent more likely to develop lung cancer than are men smokers, at the same level of exposure. Studies have shown that women are largely unaware of the danger posed by this deadly disease, as well as the differences in how it affects men and women.

The Society for Women's Health Research is the nation's only not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health of women through research, education and advocacy. Founded in 1990, the Society brought to national attention the need for the appropriate inclusion of women in major medical research studies and the need for more information about conditions affecting women disproportionately, predominately, or differently than men. The Society advocates increased funding for research on women's health; encourages the study of sex differences that may affect the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease; promotes the inclusion of women in medical research studies; and informs women, providers, policy makers and media about contemporary women's health issues. Visit the Society's Web site at www.womens-health.org for more information.