A new Research Shows That Smoking Seems to be Tougher on Women

A new study shows that women may be more vulnerable than men to the carcinogens and other noxious substances in cigarette smoke, a growing body of research suggests.

In one study of nearly 700 people with lung cancer, Swiss experts found that women tended to be younger when they received the diagnosis, even though they smoked less than the men who developed lung cancer.

In another study, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Bergen in Norway evaluated more than 950 men and women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), known to be linked to smoking. The result: The women with COPD were younger when they got the diagnosis and had smoked less than the men with the respiratory ailment.

In fact, several other studies in the past 20 years have suggested that female smokers may be more susceptible to lung cancer than male smokers.

The actual evidence suggests that men and women are remarkably similar in their risk of developing lung cancer -- with or without smoking. The types of lung cancer they get are different.

Addressing the new COPD research, which seems to say that women are more vulnerable, other factors might be at play. They include women's longer life expectancy, thus making them more likely to develop the condition.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined, according to the American Cancer Society.