Lung cancer overtakes breast cancer

A European study which looked at cancer rates in all 27 Europ0oean countries has released both good and bad news about women surrounding the diagnosis and death from cancer.

Britain has announced that deaths from lung cancer has overtaken deaths from breast cancer to make it the most lethal form of the diease among British women, research shows. Sadly, we beat the Brits on that statistic because Lung cancer became the No. 1 killer of women ovetaking breast cancer about five years ago. (I wrote that story while still working at The Advertiser).

This statistic – more than any other – surely links lifestyle choices to an untimely death.

The Europe-wide study shows that despite an overall decline in cancer deaths, mortality rates from lung cancer among women have continued to rise – up 7 per cent to around 82,000 since 2009.

In Britain, lung cancer now kills 16,000 women a year compared with 12,000 for breast cancer.

The present death rate is attributed to the numbers of young women who took up smoking in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Researchers predict that the later declines in the numbers of women smokers mean deaths from lung cancer will fall in coming years.

Meanwhile, the study published in the Annals of Oncology, announced the good news that there has been a steady reduction in breast cancer deaths across Europe in the past four years.

The death rates from all cancers in the 27 countries of Europe in 2013 are likely to fall by 6 per cent among men and by 4 per cent among women compared with 2009. However, 1.31 million people will still die of cancer in Europe this year.

One of the study authors, Professor Carlo La Vecchia says the lower death rate reflects “an important and accumulating advances in thetreatment, as well as screening and early diagnosis of the disease”.

However, lung cancer is still the main cause of cancer death among men with almost 187,000 deaths predicted for 2013 giving a death rate of 37.2 per 100,000 men.

This compares with 21.2 women per 100,000 dying of lung cancer in the UK, the highest rate in Europe.

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