Women who smoke are twice as likely to get lung cancer as male smokers, researchers say, but also are less likely to die of the disease, Reuters reported July 11.

"Given the same exposure, women are less likely to die from lung cancer than men, but they also have double the risk of getting the disease," said lead researcher Claudia Henschke of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "We're not really sure why that might be."

The researchers studied 7,498 women and 9,427 men who smoked and were at least 40 years old, tracking them over a 12-year period. They found that by the end of the study, 156 women and 113 men had developed lung cancer. However, women in the study group were 52 percent less likely to die of the disease.

Experts called for earlier cancer screening for women and more education about cancer risks.

The report was published in the July 12, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.