third leading cause of tobacco-related deaths discovered after age 55

Neoplasms of the lungs have become the third cause of death in Spain, in both men and women, with a predominance of the diagnosis in the age groups from 55 to 64 (30.4%) and from 65 to 74 (36.1%) and with Basic profile of a former smoker or active smokeraccording to data from the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GECP).

GECP has created the first National Lung Cancer Observatory with data from 34,000 Spanish patients from 90 hospitals, a platform for analysis, study, reflection and dissemination of the reality of the deadliest tumor in Spain with the aim of improving its survival.

According to the observatory’s data, lung cancer arose in 2023. more than 22,700 deaths, with female mortality rising by 4.2%.and became the third cause of death in Spain.

In the case of men, this is second cause of death lags behind ischemic heart disease, thus rising in position compared to previous years.

Only 13.3% of diagnoses occur before the age of 55, so the majority are people older than this age group, and an aggravating factor is that 54.6% of detections occur when the cancer is in its later stages. compared to 10.3% in initials.

Cases of lung neoplasms occur predominantly in former smokers (46.5%) and are higher than in current smokers (40.5%), while in never smokers this figure drops to 11.5%.

Although the largest number of diagnoses occurs in men (20,368), Number of women with lung cancer on the rise (7564), according to GECP.

National and unified register

The registry created by GEPC is the first unified database on this type of tumor and, unlike others, includes such up-to-date information as socio-demographic, clinical, molecular, genetic and patient outcome variables.

It is intended to become a reference for professionals for the next decade.

GECP President Mariano Provencio explained that when treating lung tumors, “real data is needed to make decisions,” since Spain lacks a “single registry of cancer cases” that would include “information and corresponding variables.”

Provencio, who also heads the oncology department at the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid, added that the initiative would allow for a “multidisciplinary approach to data” that would allow “any evolution to be detected in time.”

For his part, Bartomeu Massuti, Secretary of the GECP and Head of the Oncology Department at the Dr. Balmis University Hospital in Alicante, noted that Lung tumors “exceed other tumors in mortality.”

For this reason, he noted that more research and investment are needed for this pathology, as well as increased knowledge about the tumor to improve treatment strategies.

“Every year approximately 31,000 cases of lung cancerwhich is increasingly common among women and now accounts for every fourth patient,” concluded Massuti.