One in 100 women who are smokers or smokers are at risk of developing lung cancer

One thousand women aged 55 to 74 years were included in a study conducted at the RCC Regional Cancer Centre. It is one step in investigating how screening can provide early detection of lung cancer.

Only women in the age group who smoked, or who smoked frequently and had not stopped for no more than ten years, were offered to participate.

Out of thousands of women, lung cancer was detected at an early stage in ten women.

– This is roughly what we expected based on preliminary studies and similar studies in the European Union and the USA, says Nina Markholm Nordgren, project manager at RCC.

The study should be finally reported in 2027 and demonstrate whether screening is feasible and cost-effective based on Swedish conditions. It is, for example, about finding out which groups are at risk, and what resources are needed.

It should also form the basis for the National Board of Health and Social Care before deciding on the potential national introduction of targeted screening for lung cancer.

Nina Markholm Nordgren leads the lung cancer screening project.

RCC

More women smoke

She explains that the fact that lung cancer is now increasing among women is because they lag behind men, as women largely did not smoke until the 1960s and 1970s.

The research study continues this fall, and now both women and men are being offered to participate. They will answer a questionnaire, and participants will undergo an X-ray examination of the lungs using low-dose computed tomography. Those who still smoke are offered support to quit smoking.

– Then we will see if men and women answer the questionnaire and come to the exam with the same score.

Investigation

If the X-ray shows little change in the lung, the patient is offered a new X-ray time in 6-12 months. If a significant change occurs, referral is made to Karolinska University Hospital for investigation.

Smoking is the cause of 80-90% of all lung cancer cases, and those who smoke a lot and for a long time are of course in the risk zone.

Should they be worried?

– It may be surprising, but few of those contacted express their concern. Nina Markholm Nordgren says a small change doesn't always mean you have cancer.

But lung cancer is the form of cancer from which most patients die. Early detection is crucial.

Then the tumor can be removed surgically and the prognosis is much better.

More women are getting sick

About 900 people develop lung cancer in Stockholm County every year.

In 2021, 390 men and 505 women were diagnosed.

Nationally, 4,486 people will be diagnosed in 2022.

In the past 20 years, the infection rate among men has declined by an average of 1.2 percent per year, and has increased among women by an average of 1.5 percent per year.

Most people who develop lung cancer are between the ages of 60 and 80.

Source: Cancer Foundation, RCC