Researchers have uncovered a trend of higher lung cancer rates in women compared with men in recent years, contradicting earlier studies which noted that lung cancer rates were converging between sexes.
The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, examined lung cancer rates in young adults in 40 countries across five continents.
According to the researchers, including those from the University of Calgary in Canada, the emerging trend is widespread, affecting women in countries across varied geographic locations and income levels.
They believe that the changes could be driven by a rising rate of adenocarcinoma lung cancer among women.
"These crossovers were largely driven by increasing adenocarcinoma incidence rates in women. For those countries with historical smoking data, smoking prevalence in women approached, but rarely exceeded, those of men," the scientists noted in the study.
Lung cancer rates, the researchers said, have been noted in earlier studies to be higher among men than women since men started smoking in large numbers earlier, and smoked at higher rates.
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However more recent studies, they added, have reported converging lung cancer incidence rates between sexes.
"In conclusion, the emerging higher lung cancer incidence rates in young women compared to young men is widespread, and not fully explained by sex differences in smoking patterns," the study reported.
The researchers said additional research is needed to identify the reasons for the elevated incidence of lung cancer among young women observed in the current study.