Scotland: More women dying of lung cancer.

MORE Scottish women are dying of lung cancer despite a dramatic fall in the number of men with the disease.  LISTEN

Figures released recently show that female lung cancer deaths have gone up by more than 6 per cent in the past decade.

Overall cancer deaths have fallen by 8 per cent and there has been a drop of almost a quarter in the number of male lung cancer victims.

The statistics suggest women smokers are lagging behind men in heeding the warnings about the dangers of tobacco.

NHS figures show that lung cancer was the most common killer of all cancers in Scotland last year, with 2,162 men and 1,900 women dying from the illness.

Smoking is responsible for about 90 per cent of all lung cancer cases.

But it had been hoped the ban on smoking in public places, introduced in Scotland 18 months ago, would lead to a dramatic fall in the number of lung cancer cases.

However, Cancer Research UK said too many people were ignoring the warnings that lifestyle choices, such as smoking, drinking and sunbathing, play a major part in the risk of developing cancer. And the charity singled out the fact that men appeared to have taken the anti-smoking message more seriously than women.

Women in Scotland are twice as likely to develop lung cancer than those in the rest of Britain, with more females north of the Border smoking regularly.

Scotlands former chief medical officer said at the time the smoking ban was introduced that the disease was likely to be wiped out as a result. Dr Harry Burns said the next few years would see the number of cases dwindle to a few hundred a year down from a high point in the 1960s when one in every 100 men in Scotland died from lung cancer.

Recent figures have shown the survival rate for people in Scotland with lung cancer is among the lowest in Europe and on a par with some former Soviet bloc countries.

Women are failing to heed the dangers of smoking as lung cancer rates increase . And doctors warned last month that survival rates for the disease in some parts of the country could be affected by long waiting lists for radiotherapy treatment.

Comments

[Evelyn Wangari]

So sad that we have not had a permanent cure for cancer.