In 2020, 34.6% of people affected by lung cancer were women. A figure that continues to increase, the fault of tobacco and a lack of screening possibilities.
Sad news: parity is soon to be achieved in lung cancer. In 2020, only 16% of women were affected by this disease. In 2020, they are 34.6%. Among those under 50, the figure climbs to 41.1%.
“Lung cancer is no longer a disease of men”thus notes the study presented at the congress of pneumology in the French language in January 2022. Since 2000, and this, every ten years, the latter reports evolution cancer treated and diagnosed in French non-university centres, as reported by the Huffington Post.
Whose fault is it ? At the cigarette shop !
At the origin of these cancers, the tobacco arrives in pole position: it is responsible for more than 87% of cancer cases all genders combined and 75% among women. Across the Atlantic, among our American neighbours, lung cancer has imposed itself in recent years as a the leading cause of female death.
Marie-Pierre Revel, head of department at the Cochin hospital in Paris, alert in the columns of the Huffingtonposton a “extremely worrying epidemiological situation in women with an increase in the mortality rate due to this cancer of 3% every year. »
Another worrying factor: 58% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed too late, at the metastatic stage, when the cancer has already spread to another part of the body than the original one. Inevitably, the chances of survival are then reduced.
Only one solution: screening!
According to a study published on March 30, 2022 in the British Medical Journalincreasing the early detection of lung cancer, via CT scan, has saved an estimated 10,100 lives in the United States.
In the hexagon, lung cancer is not yet covered by organized screeningas is already the case for breast cancer, offered automatically to women over 50.
At present, the French health authorities fear a risk of “overdiagnosis”. In other words, it would be a question of identifying tumors which would not turn into cancer, and therefore unnecessarily imposing heavy treatments on patients.
However, last February, the High Authority for Health (HAS) announced that it wanted to develop “the setting up of real-life experiments before considering the deployment of a large-scale organized screening program. »
The Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris has just launched a pilot study, called “Cascade”, calling 2,400 smokers or ex-smokers, aged 50 to 74, to get tested. Without surprise : early detection of lung cancer in women would reduce the risk of death by 59%. Caution is the mother of safety…
At 25, I battled four cancers
Featured image: © lilartsyHire – Unsplash
