Objective Recent literature has indicated a shift in the pattern of incidence rates of lung cancer among men than among women in non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics born since the mid-1960’s. These changes are not fully explained by differences in smoking behaviors. The goal of our study is to determine the role, if any, of race on lung cancer in never-smokers in patients undergoing lung cancer surgery. Methods Our institutional database (Columbia University Medical Center) was queried from 2006 to 2018 for all patients undergoing lung cancer surgery. A total of 1631 cases of NSCLC were reported. We analyzed the cohort for differences in basic demographics, including sex, race, and smoking status. Results In Hispanic, Asian, and Black, but not White populations undergoing lung cancer surgery, non-smokers were significantly more likely to be women (p=0.01, 0.00001, 0.03). The proportion of never-smoking patients in men and women is dependent on race in Asian, Black, Hispanic, Non- Hispanic White, and all White populations (p=0.09). Conclusions The varying epidemiology of male and female lung cancer patients shows significant differences, by smoking status and race. This emphasizes the necessity for further research into the pathogenesis of nonsmoking related lung cancer. Our further research will utilize genomic analysis and multi-institutional statistical analyses to further investigate these differences.

Citation Format: Radhika Tandon, B. Payne Stanifer, Frank D'Ovidio, Anjali Saqi, Joshua Sonett. Gender, women, and lung cancer: Times are changing [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: Thirteenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2020 Oct 2-4. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(12 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-193.