Legislation co-led by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) addressing lung cancer among female Americans recently received U.S. Senate approval and moved to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration.
“West Virginia has long been deeply impacted by lung cancer, and while we’ve made progress, more must be done to expand prevention, early detection, and treatment,” Sen. Capito said on June 12. “Now that our legislation has unanimously passed the Senate, we are one step closer to helping advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer among women across our state.”
The Senate on June 8 approved the Women and Lung Cancer Research and Preventive Services Act, S. 1157, a bipartisan bill that Sen. Capito cosponsored in March 2025 alongside bill sponsor U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN).
If enacted, S. 1157 would direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to conduct a comprehensive review across departments of ongoing research that could help inform and improve responses to the increasing number of women being diagnosed with lung cancer, according to a bill summary provided by the senators.
“For women, even if we never smoke, we’re increasingly more likely than men to develop lung cancer. It’s a deeply troubling trend that we need to better understand if we hope to combat the disease,” said Sen. Smith. “This legislation is a good first step for us to take to better understand what we do and don’t know about why lung cancer rates seem to be moving in the wrong direction, particularly for one half of our population.”