Long-term effects of smoking More lung cancer cases

Long-term effects of smoking: Lung cancer will overtake breast cancer this year

01/27/2015

For the first time, more women in Europe will die of lung cancer than of breast cancer this year. The main reason for this is the long-term effects of smoking. The negative ranking is headed by Great Britain and Poland. But even in countries such as France or Spain, the developments are worrying.

This year, lung cancer will overtake breast cancer as a cause of death
In 2015, more women are expected to die from lung cancer than from breast cancer. This is the conclusion of researchers from Italy and Switzerland who evaluated the World Health Organization (WHO) databases and analyzed the development since 2009. The results of the study have now been published by Carlo La Vecchia of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Milan and his co-authors in the journal „Annals of Oncology“ released. The positive news: the overall cancer mortality rate is falling.

Overall, fewer people die from cancer
The researchers analyzed the data on cancer and deaths from 28 EU countries, with a particular focus on the most populous nations Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain and Poland. According to their calculations, this year around 1.36 million cancer deaths are expected in the EU, of which 766,000 men and 594,000 women. However, compared to 2009, 7.5 percent fewer men and 6.1 percent fewer women die because of a tumor. „We have to be careful, these are still predictions“, said La Vecchia a report of „South German newspaper“ According to (SZ). „On the other hand, the projections of the long-term trends have always made it possible to produce reliable forecasts.“

After 1968, more women started smoking
But while the proportion of nearly all tumors has declined in cause of death, there is an increase in women's lung cancer. In 2015, probably nine percent more women will fall victim to lung cancer compared to 2009. This corresponds to 14.24 women per 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, the proportion of women who are going to die from breast cancer has dropped by 10.2 percent, putting it just behind. The physicians suspect that this development is mainly due to the changed smoking behavior of women in the 20th century. As the SZ writes, especially in the wake of political and social upheaval in 1968, more women started smoking in the following years.

Great Britain and Poland lead the negative ranking
This is reflected, according to the information, decades later in the statistics on various diseases. Especially in two nations, the situation is particularly dramatic. „However, women in Poland, and especially those in the United Kingdom, have been suffering from lung cancer for a long time and have a higher proportion of related deaths“, shared La Vecchia. „The British started to smoke more during World War II, but later in the other EU countries.“

„Smoking is still the main reason for cancer“
The differences are enormous. While in the UK, 21 women die of lung cancer per 100,000 inhabitants and 17 out of 100,000 in Poland, the proportion in Spain of eight out of every 100,000 is less than half that. But despite lower lung cancer mortality trends are negative in France and Spain among women. Fabio Levi, who also participated in the study, said: „That the tendency for almost all types of tumors is going down is good news.“ He warned however: „But smoking is still the main cause of cancer in the EU and causes an estimated 85 to 90 percent of all lung tumors, 15 to 25 percent of all cases of pancreatic cancer, and is involved in several other types of tumors.“

Only two cancers cause deaths
In addition to lung cancer, pancreatic cancer is the only cancer among women whose share of causes of death in Europe is increasing. Although physicians know that tobacco use, alcohol abuse, obesity, diabetes, and familial stress can increase cancer risk, these causes account for only 40 percent of pancreatic tumors. Epidemiologist Paolo Boffetta from New York says: „There is still an urgent need for research here.“ When the scientists who published the current study predicted similar data last year, Fabio Levi of the University Hospital and the University of Lausanne pointed out that EU and national authorities had to enforce tobacco control, mainly through higher taxes. (Ad)