European female lung cancer deaths rising - study
Posted on: Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 18:19 CDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Female lung cancer deaths are still rising in most European countries although there are signs the trend is changing in young women, researchers said on Wednesday.
Since the early 1980s the number of women dying from lung cancer rose by 23.8 percent to 9.6 per 100,000 in the 25 European Union countries. It jumped a further 16 percent, to 11.2 per 100,000 in 2000-2001, since the beginning of the 1990s.
"Although trends in lung cancer mortality in various European countries have been published before, this is the first comprehensive picture of female trends and we have been able to include the most recent available data and, in particular, focus on patterns among young women," said Dr Cristina Bosetti, of the Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, Italy.
The scientists, who published their findings in the journal Annals of Oncology, said six countries showed a fall in female lung cancer deaths in the past decade. They include England, Wales, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine.
"We saw steady long-term declines in young women in Ireland and the UK since the late 1960s. In a number of others, including Austria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland, the rates among younger women have also tended to fall in the last few years," Bosetti said, referring to the 20-44 year-old age group.
Lung cancer is the most common type of tumor worldwide, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.
Most cases of the illness are linked to smoking. The five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients is less than 15 percent.
Women in Europe took up smoking later than their American counterparts. The habit among women is less widespread so Bosetti and her colleagues do not expect European female lung cancer deaths to reach the level witnessed in the United States.
In 2000 lung cancer death rates for women hit 24 per 100,000 in the United States, the researchers said.
"However, this will depend on us being able to control smoking among European women. Unless we manage to do that with effective interventions we could still face a major female lung cancer epidemic in Europe in the near future," Bosetti said.
Source: REUTERS
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