Expert: “Lung cancer is a male disease. Every year a whole city dies … “

Nikos Tzanakis, Professor of Pulmonology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Crete and Vice President of the Hellenic Society of Pulmonology, is “ringing the bells” saying that “there is an increase in deaths from lung cancer.”

According to Mr. Tzanakis, every year in Europe due to lung cancer (a disease considered “male”), the population of an entire city dies, since about 80% of cases of cancer occur in men and approximately 20% in women.

According to the professor, the total number of cancers reported internationally in 2020 in the global registry was about 20 million and resulted in 10 million deaths. “Of those 20 million, roughly two million, 11.5%, were lung cancer. However, although lung cancer accounts for 11.5% of total cancers as new cases, we have about 1.8 deaths. That is, the mortality rate reaches 20%. Therefore, lung cancer is a cancer that is not only common, but also fatal. In Europe, there are 500,000 new cases of lung cancer and 385,000 deaths every year.”

In Greece, says Mr. Tzanakis, there are registered 10,000 new cases of lung cancer per year at a ratio of 1 woman to 4 men. “Since 1992, the University of Crete has maintained a registry (Παγκρήτιο Registry καρκίνου) of oncological diseases, writes dikaiologitika.gr.

The Crete Profile Center was established by Prof. Vlachonikolis and is currently run by Christos Lionis, Professor of General Medicine and Primary Health Care. It can be said that the data of the center (Κέντρο Καταγραφής Καρκίνου Κρήτης) represent the situation in Greece.

It is significant that in 1992 there were 449 new cases of cancer per 100,000 inhabitants in Crete. In 2022, 524 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. That is, the number of patients with oncological diseases increased by 17% over 30 years (regardless of the cause of occurrence and the affected organ). At the same time, the death rate from 189 deaths per 100,000 population in 1992 rose to 211 deaths thirty years later.

While the growth of oncology reaches 17%, mortality shows an increase of 11.6%. These two numbers proportionally mean that we have been treating cancer somewhat better over the past three decades. Of all cancers in lungs’ cancer accounts for about 60-64%, i.e. it is the most common. Immediately after that, in order and frequency, are breast, prostate, colon, liver, and intrahepatic bile duct cancers, as well as bladder cancer.

Source link