lung cancer Death rates in lifelong nonsmokers

Background: Few studies have directly measured the age-, sex-, and race-specifi c risks of lung cancer incidence and mortality among never tobacco smokers. Such data are needed to quantify the risks associated with smoking and to understand racial and sex disparities and temporal trends that are due to factors other than active smoking. Methods: We measured age-, sex-, and race-specifi c rates (per 100 000 person-years at risk) of death from lung cancer among more than 940 000 adults who reported no history of smoking at enrollment in either of two large American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study cohorts during 1959 – 1972 (CPS-I) and 1982 – 2000 (CPS-II). We compared lung cancer death rates between men and women and between African Ameri-cans and whites and analyzed temporal trends in lung cancer death rates among never smokers across the two studie