CHATTANOOGA (WRCB)– there is alarming news about cancer and women.  Lung cancer is the most lethal of all cancers, killing more people each year than cancer of the breast, prostate, and colon combined.  and the latest research shows the disease is attacking more women than ever.

“I had a cough for two weeks, a dry cough. I had no other symptoms,” says Arlene Rubenstein, Lung Cancer Survivor. Arlene Rubenstein remembers, as if it was yesterday, the exact date she was diagnosed with lung cancer, October 16, 1997. ”Since it had spread, I was diagnosed with Stage 3A,” says Rubenstein.In lung cancer, stage 3-A means it's “advanced” with large tumors, which have spread to lymph nodes.”He said unfortunately with statistics, it had become a thirty percent chance of survival because it had spread,” says Rubenstein.Arlene is among the increasing number of women being diagnosed with lung cancer, while the rate of lung cancer among men drops. 

And according to a study by a Massachusetts hospital, women make up sixty percent of lung cancer cases among non-smokers.Evidence suggests women may be more sensitive than men to carcinogens in cigarettes and in second hand smoke.and the female hormone estrogen may elevate a woman's risk for lung cancer. Dr Deborah Morosini is also the sister of Dana Reeve who died of lung cancer shortly after Dana's husband Christopher Reeve passed away.”It's a young, vital, healthy person with a great diet, no smoking history, no toxic exposure, who comes up with stage four lung cancer in their early forties. It's the largest women's cancer and it's the least funded. The least amount of awareness and there is this huge stigma,” says Deborah Morosini, M.D.

“You could really see sizably small tumors and follow them with CT scans for a relatively small amount of radiation and low cost, about three hundred dollars,” says Morosini.Arlene, a former smoker, is now a cancer survivor. but Dr. Morosini is still searching to discover why her sister contracted the deadly disease having never smoked and with no family history of lung cancer.Dr. Morosini's on the board of a support group called the Lung Cancer Alliance.  She's pushing for more awareness of the disease, as well as preventative screenings for smokers, and those with a family history.