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According to two separate studies presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, the best way to beat lung cancer is to be married Hispanic woman.

The first study, conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore posits that Married patients with locally advanced lung cancer are likely to survive longer after treatment than patients who are single, according to a press report by the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Researchers studied 16 patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type, who had received chemotherapy and radiation treatments from January 2000 to December 2010.

They found that 33 percent of married were still alive after the 10 year period, compare to the 10 percent of their single counter parts, with women having higher survival rates than men.

"Marital status appears to be an important independent predictor of survival in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer," says the study's lead author, Elizabeth Nichols, M.D., a radiation oncology resident at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center. "The reason for this is unclear, but our findings suggest the importance of social support in managing and treating our lung cancer patients. Patients may need help with day-to-day activities, getting to treatment and making sure they receive proper follow-up care."

According to this study, white married patients had a better survival rate that married and single African-American patients.

But a separate study based on statistics gathered from the California Cancer Registry shows that Hispanics/Latinos with NSCLC have a higher overall survival compared to non-Hispanic white patients.

Evaluating records of 14,829 Hispanic patients from the CCR from 1988-2008, researchers found that foreign-born Hispanics had a 14 percent lowered risk of death from compared to U.S. Born Hispanics and foreign-born Hispanics who lived in the least U.S.-assimilated neighborhoods had the better overall survival rate than any other group, regardless of socioeconomic factors such as class or marital status.

"The results of this study confirm the 'Hispanic paradox' of  improved survival rates for Hispanic/Latino NSCLC patients compared to non-Hispanic white patients, despite lower socioeconomic status," said lead author Manali Patel, MD, a post-doctoral fellow in the hematology/oncology department at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

Researchers are not sure why this is the case, though intend to look into any diet, exercise or holistic medicine that may be used by patients.