A 10-year study of cancer patients has found women have twice the risk men do of developing lung cancer, irrespective of how many cigarettes they smoke.

Recent figures have shown young Australian women are taking up smoking at ever increasing rates and the findings of the new study in the United States show just how risky their behaviour is. David Ball from Peter Macallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne, said: "It's not uncommon for us to see young mothers with lung cancer. "It is not a disease that hits people in their 70s anymore." Radiologists in New York examined almost 3,000 people aged over 40. Using CAT scans, they found women had double the risk of developing lung cancer, irrespective of how much they smoked and for how long. Doctors admit there is no clear reason why the risks are so much higher for women. "It's conceivable they don't have the same metabolic processes to process the chemicals," Dr Ball said. "We can only speculate." In Australia, 20 per cent of women smoke, a slightly lower rate than for men. But experts say once women start smoking, they are much less likely to stop. Ann Jones from Action on Smoking and Health said: "Instead of quitting women are moving or shifting to lighter cigarettes which they think are some how safer." "They are not safer, they are just as harmful," she said. Public health experts want new quit smoking campaigns targeted especially at women. They say lung cancer now causes more deaths in Australia than breast cancer.

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