Lung cancer in women: what a new study shows about treatment side effects
A new study from France has found that women treated with a growing group of lung cancer drugs had more side effects than men. The study looked at how well treatment was tolerated, not at how long people lived. It adds to a wider body of evidence on how lung cancer affects women differently.
A newer type of treatment
Antibody-drug conjugates, usually shortened to ADCs, are a newer kind of cancer treatment. They work in two parts. An antibody finds a specific protein on the surface of cancer cells. A cancer-killing drug is attached to that antibody and carried towards the tumour. The aim is to reach cancer cells more precisely and to spare more healthy tissue.
ADCs are being tested widely in lung cancer. They are one of the faster-growing areas of treatment research, and several are already in use or in late-stage trials. As more people receive them, it becomes useful to understand how different groups of people tolerate them.
What the study found
Researchers at Gustave Roussy, a cancer centre near Paris, reviewed the records of 132 people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). All had been treated with developmental ADCs in early-phase clinical trials between 2018 and 2023. The group was almost evenly split, with 64 women and 68 men. The findings were published in the journal ESMO Open.
Women had more side effects than men across several measures. After the researchers accounted for other differences between the two groups, they found that:
Around 83% of women had a moderate or more serious side effect, compared with 69% of men.
Side effects affecting how the body uses food and energy were almost three times as common in women. These included loss of appetite, weight loss, and imbalances in the body’s salts and fats. They affected almost 30% of women, compared with around 10% of men.
Women were almost twice as likely to need the dose of their treatment lowered, at almost 38% compared with 19% of men.
Women also tended to have a higher number of separate side effects each.
Survival was similar for women and men. The study does not suggest that ADCs are less effective for women. It suggests that women may carry a heavier burden of side effects while receiving them.
What the study does and does not show
This was a single-centre study that looked back at existing records, rather than a large trial designed in advance. It included 132 people and grouped together several different ADCs. The researchers describe their findings as a starting point for further work rather than a settled conclusion.
When they looked only at the most severe side effects, the difference between women and men was smaller and could have been due to chance. Larger studies, designed from the outset to compare side effects in women and men, would be needed to confirm the pattern.
The study received editorial assistance from a pharmaceutical company, Daiichi Sankyo. The authors state that they reviewed the work and take full responsibility for its content.
Part of a wider pattern
These findings sit within a larger and growing area of research. A review published in the journal Lung Cancer in January 2026 set out how sex-based differences can affect screening eligibility, treatment response and side effects across the whole course of care. Women are also under-represented in lung cancer clinical trials. This means side effects in women have often been less well understood than side effects in men.
We have written before about how lung cancer in women differs in incidence, biology, diagnosis and clinical trial representation. The new ADC study adds one more piece to that picture, focused on the newest class of treatments.
Quality of life and other effects
Side effects are one part of how treatment affects daily life. Lung Cancer Europe’s own data, from our 10th Annual Report, found that women living with lung cancer reported worse mental health than men, and were more likely to have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Other issues affect women in particular. For younger women, lung cancer can raise questions about fertility and family planning at the same time as urgent treatment decisions. These areas are only beginning to receive sustained research attention.
Why European data is needed
In our earlier article, we noted that understanding lung cancer in women needs European data to inform it. This new study is one example of that data. It is a European study, and it points to a difference that current treatment research has rarely measured.
Better information on how women tolerate treatment would support more personalised care. It would help people and their clinical teams have clearer conversations about what to expect. And it would help make sure that treatments work, and are understood, for everyone who receives them.
Sources
Parisi C, et al. Sex-based differences in tolerability of developmental antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). ESMO Open, Volume 11, Issue 7, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esmoop.2026.107773
Lung cancer in women: current evidence and future research priorities. Lung Cancer, January 2026. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169500225007974
Lung Cancer Europe 10th Annual Report, 2025. https://www.lungcancereuropenews.eu/10th-lung-cancer-europe-report
Lung cancer in women: what ASCO 2026 and a new Nature review tell us. Lung Cancer Europe, June 2026. https://lungcancereurope.eu/news/lung-cancer-in-women-what-asco-2026-tells-us