Lung cancer usually occurs in older people. The average age
of people who are diagnosed with
lung cancer is 70. 1
Men are more likely to develop lung cancer than women but fewer men smoke
now than in the past, so the death rate from lung cancer for men is decreasing.
The death rate from lung cancer for women is leveling off after increasing for
several decades.2
- Black men are more likely to develop lung cancer
than men of any other racial group.
- White women and black women are
about equally likely to develop lung cancer.
The risk of dying from lung cancer is 20 times higher for
women who smoke two or more packs of cigarettes a day than for women who do not
smoke.3
If you live with a smoker, you
have 2 to 3 times the risk for lung cancer compared with a person who lives in
a nonsmoking environment.4 About 25% of nonsmokers who
develop lung cancer probably get it from being exposed to
secondhand smoke.5