Number of women smoking, diagnosed with lung cancer up in Hungary

The number of smokers among women has increased in Hungary, as did the number of those diagnosed with lung cancer, the Hungarian Respiratory Society warned on Monday, marking World No Tobacco Day.

According to Helló Magyar, between 2014 and 2019, the proportion of smoking women had gone up to 23,9 percent from 22,3 percent, the organisation said in a statement. Meanwhile, the number of smoking men dropped to 30 percent from 36,08 since 2009, the society said.

The rise is alarming, and is connected to an increase in lung cancer diagnoses, the statement said.

During 2010-2016, the number of new lung cancer cases among smoking women had increased by close to 40 percent, while the figure among smoking men was only 15 percent.

Meanwhile, the society welcomed Hungary’s improving lung cancer five-year survival rate of 17-18 percent, which puts the country among the mid-fielders among EU countries.

“This result could exceed 60 percent with early detection of the disease and appropriate therapy, significantly reducing the number of 6,000 lung cancer related deaths per year,” it said.

Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared May 31 as World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to raise attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths it causes.

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Source: Helló Magyar/MTI