Smoking main threat to Euro-cancer success

Monday January 18th, 2010

Cutting smoking rates - especially among women - will make the biggest difference to cutting deaths from cancer, researchers have reported.

Growing numbers of women across the continent are dying from lung cancer - although death rates among men are falling.

Women in Denmark, Hungary and Scotland are most likely to die from lung cancer, according to the analysis, while men are most susceptible in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Researchers blamed the increase on growing smoking rates among women - but said this was counterbalanced by improvements in treatment and prevention.

This has meant an eight per cent drop in deaths of women over a ten year period - and a nine per cent reduction in male deaths.

Researchers analysed death rates between 1995 and 2004, when there was a 27 per cent increase in deaths of women from lung cancer. Male deaths from lung cancer fell by 17 per cent.

Researcher Dr Cristina Bosetti, of the Mario Negri Institute, Milan, Italy, said: "Falls in lung and other tobacco related cancers in men, the persistent decline in gastric cancer, and appreciable falls in colorectal cancer are the main causes.

"Screening and early diagnosis have contributed to the decline in cervical and breast cancer, although the fall in breast cancer deaths is mainly due to improved treatment.

"Therapeutic advancements have also played a role in the reduced mortality from testicular cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma and leukaemias, although the declines have been delayed and are smaller in Eastern Europe."

"Cancer mortality in Europe, 2000 - 2004, an overview of trends since 1975", is published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology (30 November 2009); doi:10.1093/annonc/mdp530

Tags: Cancer | Europe | Women’s Health & Gynaecology

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