Cancer Report: More and more women are dying of lung cancer
All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichBy 2015, lung cancer could replace breast cancer as the deadliest type of cancer in women. Pancreatic cancer is also on the rise. For other types of cancer, the numbers are falling, shows the recently published European cancer report.
The number of cancer deaths is falling
Statisticians from Switzerland and Italy evaluated the disease data from 27 European countries and, as in previous years, made a forecast for 2013. According to this, 1.3 million people will die of cancer in the countries examined this year. The good news: The number is lower than in 2009, for men it has dropped by six and for women by four percent.
Seven percent more lung cancer
Scientists are concerned about the increasing number of lung cancer deaths - especially among women. The forecast for 2013 assumes an increase of seven percent compared to 2009. "If this trend continues, lung cancer will claim the highest number of female deaths in Europe by 2015," said Carlo La Vecchia from the University of Milan.This is already the case with men.
Breast cancer down, pancreatic cancer up
"The predicted increase in lung cancer could be due to the fact that many young women started smoking in the late 1960s and 1970s," La Vecchia suggests. The researchers attribute the falling number of breast cancer deaths to advances in therapy and early detection.
There are, however, some significant differences between the countries examined. Take pancreatic cancer, for example: On average in Europe, eight out of 100,000 men and 5.5 out of 100,000 women succumb to this condition. In contrast, it is 6.3 per 100,000 among German women. Spanish women are significantly less affected with 4.1 per 100,000. Overall, pancreatic cancer has risen to fourth place among the fatal cancers in Europe - in both men and women.
Prevent with smoking cessation
"The best way to prevent pancreatic cancer is to avoid tobacco consumption, obesity and the diabetes that often results," explains La Vecchia. In his opinion, this would prevent a third of deaths from this type of cancer in Europe. Because neither in treatment nor in diagnosis are breakthroughs expected at the moment that could have a favorable effect on death rates.
The co-author of the study, Fabio Levi from the University of Lausanne, also sees the promotion of anti-tobacco campaigns as a key message of the study. "If more people could be encouraged to quit smoking or not to start in the first place, hundreds of thousands of cancer deaths in Europe could be prevented each year." (lh)
Source: M. Malvezzi et al. European cancer mortality predictions for the year 2013; Annals of Oncology 24: 792-800, 2013
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