“A few years ago he wasn’t even in the top 10.”
He number of cancers The number of diagnoses in Spain will increase in 2024. The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) estimates that there will be 286,664 new cases this year. This is 2.6 percent more than in 2023. Thus, the most commonly diagnosed malignancies will be tumors of the breast, colorectal intestine and lungs. The latter ranks third among women for the first time, as their tobacco consumption has tripled in recent years.
These data are taken from the annual report “Cancer figures in Spain 2024”, in which SEOM and the Spanish Network of Cancer Registries (Redecan) annually publish their forecasts for cancer incidence in Spain. tumors that will occur per year to our country. Overall, between men and women, doctors most often diagnose diseases of the colon and rectum (44,294), breast (36,395), lung (32,768), prostate (30,316) and bladder (22,097).
Similarly, the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in women in Spain in 2024 will be mother (36,395) and colon and rectum (17,285). Tumors of the lungs (10,285), uterine body (7,305), pancreas (4,777) and thyroid gland (4,775) lag significantly behind, but for the first time occupy the third section.
Expert analysis shows that this year number of lung cancer cases in women (12.3% more than in 2023). This puts it further away from uterine cancer, which was the third most common cancer. This gradual increase is directly related to the tobacco addiction that women acquired in the 70s.
These data are alarming because, according to Jaume Galceran, president of Redecan, lung cancer a few years ago “wasn’t even in the top 10 among women,” but now ranks third, and that’s “due to tobacco“
This is not the only tumor that will grow in the coming years. Doctors also expect an increase in the incidence of other tumors associated with this legal drug, especially oral cavity and pharynx.
As for men, then, as in 2023, it will be men prostate (30,316), colon and rectum (27,009), lungs (22,483) and bladder (18,247). The next most common cancers are by far kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx, liver, pancreas and stomach, all with more than 4,000 cases per year.
Profile of patients with lung tumors
The age range of people with this disease is 60 to 70 years. However, patients aged 50 to 60 years make up 21 percent of the total. Additionally, about 6 percent of diagnoses occur in people between 40 and 50 years of age.
The majority of women diagnosed with this malignant neoplasm (83%) have non-small cell lung canceror, followed by small cell lung cancer (14%).
According to experts, to know how to diagnose this deadly disease, you need to know some of the symptoms. Among them cough, pain, shortness of breath, and sometimes weight loss. However, according to studies, 30 percent of patients in the later stages and almost 60 percent in the early stages did not have any illness that would alert them to the mass.
Greater Survival
Despite the large number of diagnoses, survival rate continues to rise. The five-year net survival rate for Spanish cancer patients between 2008 and 2013 was 55.3% for men and 61.7% for women. The noticeable difference is due to the incidence of tumors in certain sexes.
Similarly, in men, age-standardized net survival was 90 percent for prostate and testicular cancer and 86 percent for thyroid cancer. However, in pancreas cancer12 percent in the lungs, 13 percent in the esophagus and 18 percent in the liver.
On the other side, women with thyroid cancer The net survival rate was 93 percent: 89% of patients diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma and 86% of patients diagnosed with breast cancer. For pancreatic cancer the figure was 10 percent, for liver and esophageal cancer it was 16 percent, and for lung cancer it was 18 percent.
In this sense, the survival rate of cancer patients in Spain is similar to that in neighboring countries. It is assumed that the number of cured cases has doubled over the past 40 years. In fact, it is certain that it will continue to increase as more and more new, more effective treatments become available.