More women are dying of lung cancer in UK

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 29 2010

New research shows that the rates of lung cancer in women have risen and this could be a sign that efforts to persuade them to quit smoking have failed. The cases among men have fallen on the other hand.

Figures reveal that number of women suffering from lung cancer in England increased by 10% between 1987 and 2006, climbing from 32.3 cases per 100,000 to 35.4 per 100,000 during the 19-year period. Among men, the rate of lung cancer fell from 70.4 per 100,000 in 2000 to 59.4 per 100,000 in 2007 in the UK. The report published by the South West Public Health Observatory also points out that most of the anti smoking campaigns are directed towards men. This research on prevalence of the disease in women will be published at the British Thoracic Society’s (BTS) winter meeting on Friday this week.

According to Dr Paul Beckett, chair of the BTS advisory group on lung cancer and respiratory physician at Burton Hospitals NHS Trust in Staffordshire, “Lung cancer is one of the UK’s biggest killers and we really need to focus on reducing rates across all groups in society…Clearly, targeting cigarette smoking is key to achieving this but it’s also very important to catch the disease early. I’d urge anyone who is worried about symptoms such as cough and breathlessness to visit their GP and to consider getting a chest x-ray. While it’s encouraging to see that improvements are being made in the treatment of lung cancer, we need to work on removing variations in care and make sure everyone across the country is receiving the same excellent quality of care.”

Lung cancer is also on an all time high in Scotland Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation said killing 4,147 people last year. Director Suzy Mercer said, “Early diagnosis of the disease can save lives. The scale of the problem merits a much greater investment.”

A Department of Health spokesman also said, “Up to 10,000 lives a year could be saved if England’s survival rates were brought up to the best levels in Europe. We are looking carefully at how best to achieve early diagnosis and have already announced a new campaign starting in January to alert people to the early signs and symptoms of lung, bowel and breast cancer.” Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon assured, “We know more progress has to be made. It’s a top priority.”