Lung cancer’s quiet rise among women who never smoked
CBS News’ “Healthful” spotlighted lung cancer in women who never smoked, with doctors warning that current screening rules miss many at risk.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
3 min read
Lung cancer is the top cause of cancer death among women in the United States, and CBS News reports that a rising portion of new diagnoses are being found in women who have never smoked.
The issue was the focus of a new episode of Norah O’Donnell’s “Healthful,” which featured Anne Wojcicki, Shira Kupperman Boehler and Dr. Kim Sandler, director of the Vanderbilt Lung Screening Program. Sandler described the trend in stark terms: “This is a women's health crisis, but we don't talk about it.”
Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was part of that group. A non-smoker, she died of lung cancer nearly two years ago at 56. Her sister, Anne Wojcicki, joined the conversation as CBS examined why the disease is still so closely linked in public perception to smoking, even as many patients do not fit that profile.
Why early detection matters
Lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, pancreatic and ovarian cancers combined, according to the CBS report. One major reason: symptoms can appear only after the disease has become harder to treat.
A 2023 study in The Journal of Radiology found that patients diagnosed at stages I or II had an 81% survival rate. By contrast, the American Lung Cancer Association puts survival for late-stage lung cancer at 10%, according to figures cited by CBS.
Low-dose CT scans can find lung cancer earlier, when treatment is more likely to work. Current American Lung Cancer guidelines recommend that screening for people over 50 who have a 20-pack-year smoking history. A pack-year means smoking one pack, or about 20 cigarettes, per day for one year.
Those rules leave out many people who later develop the disease. CBS reported that about 20% of lung cancer cases occur in non-smokers. Among those non-smoking patients, women who never smoked make up two-thirds of cases.
A push to rethink screening
Boehler, a non-smoker diagnosed with stage 1B lung cancer at 44, told “Healthful” she wants lung cancer screening to begin at 40, similar to mammograms.
“The problem is we don't feel our lungs until it's too late, until the cancer has spread to our bones, to our brain, and then it is the number one cancer killer,” she said.
The episode also looked at another group at elevated risk: breast cancer survivors. Sandler said people often view cancer as a one-time event, but a prior cancer can raise the risk of another diagnosis.
“Once we have cancer once, we're actually at an increased risk of developing cancer again, and lung cancer is the most common cancer to develop after breast cancer,” Sandler said.
The CBS discussion covered known risks as well as current and possible future screening options, with the central warning that lung cancer in women who never smoked remains under-discussed despite its deadly toll.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.