The latest figures from the National Cancer Registry (NCR) show a marked increase in the number of cases of lung cancer in women in the last eight years.
The next multi-annual report from the registry which will be published next month, will show that lung cancer in women is increasing by over 3 per cent a year, while for men the numbers are falling by about 1 per cent.
According to the director of the National Cancer Registry, Dr Harry Comber, if present trends continue women will have the same rate of lung cancer as men by 2015.
"A dramatic increase in lung cancer deaths among women was seen in 2000, principally in younger women. If these trends continue, by 2010 more women than men will by dying from lung cancer every year," he told The Irish Times.
Cancer experts here have been predicting this rise ever since smoking trends changed. The number of women who smoke continues to rise; smoking rates in men have been in decline for a number of years. The recent survey of health behaviour in school children found that among 15- to 18-year-olds, more girls than boys smoke.
According to the first five-year report from the National Cancer Registry for 1994-1998, lung cancer had the worst prognosis of all cancer types. Only 10 per cent of women and 8.5 per cent of men were alive five years after being diagnosed with the disease.
Lung cancer is almost exclusively a disease of smokers with in excess of 95 per cent of cases related to smoking. There were 1,780 cases of in the Republic in 2001. The greatest number of cases and deaths from lung cancer occurred in patients aged 70 years and over.
While lung, breast and bowel cancers are the three most common types of cancer in the Republic, the number of deaths from lung cancer is greater than that from bowel and breast cancer combined.
There are two common types of lung cancer based on a tissue diagnosis made following a biopsy of the tumour; small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Small cell is treated by radiotherapy and chemotherapy and non-small cell, which accounts for 80 per cent of cases, is operable if diagnosed at an early stage.
Today is National No-Smoking Day. For information on smoking cessation, contact your family doctor or the Irish Cancer Society at 01 668 1855.