Women’s Lung Cancer Rates 'Rapidly Increasing', Doctors Call For Stricter Tobacco Laws

Women’s lung cancer rates have increased by 35 per cent over a 10-year period, according a new report released today (Jan 6).

A Welsh study found that cases of lung cancer among women in the country have skyrocketed, with doctors now calling for stricter laws surrounding tobacco sales.

"Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and is the commonest cancer leading to death in the EU," Dr Dyfed Wyn Huws from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) at Public Health Wales told BBC News.

"Further effective tobacco control is still needed to bring our rates down to the levels of Sweden or Australia."

The new figures have revealed that 825 women were told they had lung cancer in Wales in 2003 – but that figure increased to 1,121 women in 2012.

But the cases of lung cancer in men over the same period has actually decreased by three per cent, with the men and women’s lung cancer rates now almost equal.

The report also highlighted that deprivation was a key factor, with the most deprived parts of Wales having 27 per cent more cases.

And geographical locations made a difference, too, with an 87 per cent higher rate in the Welsh council areas than the country’s average.

Now, Wales has the third highest rate of lung cancer out of 40 different EU countries and Dr Wyn Huws argued this shows there is a significant room for improvement.

Doctors at the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) are calling for stricter controls on tobacco sales in order to decrease the rates.

The Welsh stats are reflective of the UK as a whole, although Scotland is the only UK nation where lung cancer remains the most common cancer (it actually has one of the highest rates in the world).

According to Cancer Research, there were 43,463 new cases of lung cancer in the UK in 2011 - 23,770 (55 per cent) in men and 19,693 (45 per cent) in women.

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