Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Spain and, therefore, a priority health problem. One in three men and one in four women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Based on this reality, the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), before World Cancer Day that is celebrated next Thursday, has calculated that 220,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer in Spain in 2015 (136,961 men and 85,108 women). The most common type of tumor for them will be lung, followed by prostate and colorectal. Among women, on that same date, the tumor with the highest incidence will be breast, followed by colorectal and gynecological tumors.
Lung cancer and tobacco
Lung cancer is one of the most serious. Its mortality rate is very high and the survival rates of the lowest; However, tobacco is one of the few types of cancer for which we know the cause in 90% of cases, as recalled by the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. The pulmonologists and thoracic surgeons of this scientific society want to draw attention to the paradox of this situation in the middle of the debate on the modification of the Tobacco Law.
The figures, they say, speak for themselves. In 2007, 16,000 men and 2,500 women died in Spain due to lung cancer. 20,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, representing 12% of the global cancer patients. The severity of the disease translates into disappointing five-year overall survival figures including all cases. If survival is over 80% in breast cancer or 65% in colon cancer, lung cancer barely reaches 15%. And? The risk of death from lung cancer is 22 times higher among smokers than among non-smokers ,? according to Juan José Rivas, vice president and thoracic surgeon of SEPAR. Surgery is the only curative treatment for lung cancer, although? The problem is that only in 1 out of 4 patients is the disease detected at an appropriate stage for intervention ,? Rivas emphasizes.
