Lung Cancer Surpasses Breast Cancer

Lung cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths for women in developed countries. A new study from the American Cancer Society shows that more women in richer nations die from lung cancer than breast cancer, which had been the leading cancer-killer. In 2012, 209,000 women in developed countries died from lung cancer, while 197,000 died from breast cancer. The shift is largely due to the greater focus on early breast-cancer detection, as well as the remaining effects of tobacco's popularity, despite the trend against smoking. "The good news is that we can probably expect to see these lung cancer mortality rates peak and start to decline as times go by," said the report's lead author, Lindsey Torre.