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Lung cancer risk for Irish women still increasing

The number of cancer cases is on the rise. The annual report from the National Cancer Registry sa...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.26 15 Aug 2013


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Lung cancer risk for Irish wom...

Lung cancer risk for Irish women still increasing

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.26 15 Aug 2013


Share this article


The number of cancer cases is on the rise. The annual report from the National Cancer Registry says the number of cases is growing by 3% every year while the number of deaths is up by 1% year-on-year.

However the report shows that long-term survival rates have increased dramatically over the past decade with over 60% of patients surviving five years on from diagnosis.

It adds that survival for some cancers - testis, prostate and thyroid - is now over 90% at five years.

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There are currently over 100,000 cancer survivors in Ireland. Although the number of male and female survivors is about the same, the registry says that about 25% of all survivors are women with breast cancer.

The number of women smoking remains very high

The number of patients having chemotherapy has increased by 13% between 2000-2004 and 2005-2009. The largest increase was for cancers which had a previously low rate of chemotherapy.

While the numbers having surgery have increased by 2%, and radiotherapy by 4%.

It shows that the most common cancers are breast cancer in women (32% of the total) and prostate cancer in men (31%), while colorectal - or bowel 0 and lung are the commonest cancers affecting both sexes.

The registry says that lung cancer remains the commonest cause of cancer death in both sexes at 20%. The mortality of lung cancer in Irish women is the 4th highest in Europe and is more than 50% above the European average and still increasing.

Director of the National Cancer Registry is Dr. Harry Comber. He says while survival rates are improving - there are still concerns about the mortality rate of lung cancer - particularly amongst women.


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