Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in France, causing more than 30,000 deaths each year. If men were previously the most affected, the latest epidemiological data reveal that lung cancer in women has increased exponentially over the last twenty years. Details.
Lung cancer in women
the lung cancer is a frequent cancer, the incidence of which has for years tended to stagnate in men, but to increase in women. Diagnosed on average around the age of 68-69, the 5-year survival rate remains poor, despite recent progress in screening and patient management.
Since 1990, data collected by the National Cancer Institute (INCA) show that both incidence and mortality have stagnated or even decreased in men. In women, on the contrary, the incidence increases as well as mortality.. Every ten years since 2000, the College of Pneumologists of General Hospitals has conducted a multicenter observational epidemiological study, in order to assess the evolution of new cases of primary bronchial cancer.
Epidemiological monitoring every ten years
Recently, the pulmonologists have published the results of the third part of this study, carried out on 8,998 patients included throughout 2020 and having been followed for primary lung cancer in one of the 82 hospitals that took part in the study. Results that they were able to compare with the data collected during the studies of 2000 and 2010. In 2000 and 2010, respectively 5667 and 7051 patients from 137 and 104 centers had been included.
First observation of the researchers between the three parts of the study, the age of patients diagnosed with lung cancer tends to increase between 2000 and 2020, with an average age at diagnosis of 67.8 years in 2020 against 64.3 years in 2000. The majority of cancers were diagnosed at stage IV (lung cancer with metastases, often with a poor prognosis) and were histologically adenocarcinomas. Between 2000 and 2020, advances in screening have made it possible to search for genetic mutations associated with lung cancer, a search carried out for more than half of patients in 2020, compared to only 30% of patients in 2010.
Targeting women in public health messages
But the essential information to be retained from these three parts of the study is the significant increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women. In 2000, they accounted for only 16% of new cases of primary lung cancer, a figure that has increased in 2020 to almost 35%. Women are therefore twice as affected today as in 2000 by lung cancer. And in patients under 50, the proportion of women reaches 41%.
As with men, smoking remains one of the main causes of lung cancer, even if the proportion of non-smokers tends to increase over the years (7.2% in 2000, 10.9% in 2010 and 12.6% in 2020). This trend towards an increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women would therefore be linked to the increase in smoking within the female population. Some doctors fear a veritable explosion of female lung cancers in the coming years. These data were presented at the Congress of Pneumology in the French Language, which took place from January 21 to 23, 2022, and could be the source of public health messages specifically intended for women.
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
Sources
– Lung cancer. e-cancer.fr. Accessed January 22, 2022.
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