Cases of lung cancer among women living in the State are expected to increase by more than 130 per cent by 2040, a discussion on the disease will hear today.
Research commissioned by the Marie Keating Foundation and pharma-company MSD ahead of the roundtable event found a perception of lung cancer as the the “forgotten” disease of oncology.
This is despite 2,300 people being diagnosed with it every year in the State and predictions from the National Cancer Registry that the figures will rise by 136 per cent by 2040.
Cancer expert Prof John Crown, of St Vincent’s University Hospital, said lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths in the State.
Among women, he said, lung cancer was not as common as breast cancer, but recent advances had made the latter easier to cure and as a result there were now more fatalities form lung cancer.
“Unfortunately we are seeing a generation of smokers who learned to smoke from television in the 1950s coming through in the figures,” said Prof Crown.
It is the first time the Marie Keating Foundation has involved itself in lung cancer issues, a move the organisation said was prompted by the need “ to generate awareness about the lack of attention provided to lung cancer in recent years”.
According to the research:
*Just 7per cent of the population are aware that out of all the cancers lung cancer is the biggest single cancer killer of Irish women.
*Some 57 per cent of respondents believed the biggest killer of women was breast cancer and 24 per cent believed the biggest killer of women was cervical cancer.
On the specific topic of health inequality, the research found one-third of Irish people assumed that rates of lung cancer were 60 per cent higher in socially deprived areas in Ireland versus more affluent areas.
The research will be discussed by a panel of experts including Prof Crown; Dr Nina Byrnes; Liz Yeates, chief executive of the Marie Keating Foundation; Dr Ross Morgan of the Irish Thoracic Society; and Dr Anne-Marie Baird of advocacy body Lung Cancer Europe.
