A European campaign against cancer is producing results, although tobacco remains a big problem.

In the mid-1980s, the European Union's Europe Against Cancer Programme set the ambitious target of cutting the number of deaths from cancer by 15 per cent by the year 2000.

An analysis of the trends now reveals that this target has not been met, but the UK, Italy and Luxembourg have come close to it. There have been, overall, nearly 100,000 fewer deaths than expected within the EU in the year 2000, showing that the campaign is working. The report looks at deaths in the most common cancers: lung, stomach, colorectal, breast and prostate.

The figures showed that smoking makes a big impact - positive for men, negative for women. Countries that experience a decrease in all forms of cancer have a very obvious decrease in lung cancer than can probably be linked with tobacco control. But in every country, the death rate from lung cancer among women was on the increase (though it could now be stabilizing in the UK). This suggests that tobacco control among women might not be working. In conclusion, cancer control seems to be working well in Finland, the UK, Austria, Luxembourg and Italy and failing in Spain, Portugal and Greece. Denmark and Ireland need to do more!

Source

Annals of Oncology July 2003