More
people are quitting smoking
There has
been a dramatic fall in the number of people dying prematurely from lung
cancer.
Scientists
from Cancer Research UK say the drop has been due to successful
anti-smoking campaigns.
The charity
also hailed a dramatic fall in the number of deaths from breast cancer.
The decreases
are among the sharpest in the world. However, this is largely because
historically the UK has had a high number of cancer deaths.
In the 1960s,
almost 250 men in every 100,000 per year died before the age of 70 from
smoking-related diseases.
The figure
now is just over 100 men per 100,000 per year.
Sharp fall
Smoking-related
cancers prematurely killed between 55 and 60 women per 100,000 in 1990,
but the figure has now dropped to fewer than 50.
Although lung
cancer accounts for most smoking related cancer deaths, smoking is also
linked to cancers of the gullet, bladder and pancreas.
Just 10 years
ago, the UK had the highest number of deaths for breast cancer in the
world.
But deaths
from breast cancer among the under 70s have dropped by 30% in the last
decade.
Sir Richard
Peto, of Cancer Research UK, told the BBC: "We have got the best
decrease in the world in lung cancer deaths, we have got the best decrease
in the world in breast cancer deaths - lung cancers because lots of people
have stopped smoking; breast cancer because the treatment has improved.
"These
are the most important cancers there are in countries like Britain."
Professor
Richard Doll, who first discovered the link between smoking and lung
cancer, said: "We've been enormously successful at persuading people
to quit.
"As a
result, the death rate from lung cancer is tumbling more quickly than
anywhere else in the world."
A Cancer
Research UK spokesman said: "We're not claiming there aren't problems
with survival from some cancers, or that everything's rosy, but these are
two really dramatic pieces of good news that people haven't really been
aware of."
He said
people giving up smoking, rather than not taking it up, had made the
biggest impact on lung cancer deaths.
"What
we've been really good at in this country is persuading people to
quit," he said.
Delyth
Morgan, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "We are
extremely encouraged by the drop in breast cancer deaths announced
today."
"Improvement
in treatments, breast screening services and raised awareness of the
disease are key to this significant trend."
Meanwhile,
the Department of Health has announced 25 new linear accelerators to
provide radiotherapy treatment for cancer patients on the NHS.
Ministers had
pledged to introduce 45 of these machines in hospitals across England by
2004 in the NHS Cancer Plan, published in 2000.
But a
spokeswoman from Macmillan Cancer Relief said: "This will not offer
improvements for cancer patients unless there are the skilled people in
place to use them."
She called
for more radiographers to be recruited in the NHS.
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