Death rates for lung cancer are increasing in Europe and are trending to surpass breast cancer deaths this year, according to a new study.
A team of researchers from Italy and Switzerland looked at the cancer rates in all 28 European member states, as well as the six largest countries - France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK.
"UK and Polish women, particularly UK women, have long had much higher lung cancer rates than most other European countries (except Denmark, which is not considered separately in this study)," Professor Carlo La Vecchia, professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan (Italy), and a study author, said in a news release.
"This is due to the fact that British women started smoking during the Second World War, while in most other EU countries women started to smoke after 1968. It is worrying that female lung cancer rates are not decreasing in the UK, but this probably reflects the fact that there was an additional rise in smoking prevalence in the UK as well in the post-1968 generation - those born after 1950. However, despite the relatively lower rates of women dying from lung cancer in other EU countries, the trends are less favourable in some countries, particularly in France and Spain."
Women's lung cancer rates are also expected to surpass breast cancer rates in Europe.
Lung cancer deaths in women are expected to increase by nine percent from 2009 to 14.24 per 100,000 of the population, according to the study. Breast cancer deaths are predicted to fall 10.2 percent from 2009 to 14.22 per 100,000 people.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal Annals of Oncology.
