An analysis of World Health Organisation data found that the “highest rates” of mortality for women with breast cancer are in Britain with the lowest in Spain.

However lung cancer kills even more women in this country.

In total, 156,000 people in this country are predicted to succumb to all forms of the disease this year, out of a European total of 1.28million.

Mortality rates are falling but the number of deaths remains stable as the population ages.

“Lung, colorectal and breast cancers are the top causes of cancer deaths, and these are showing major changes,” said Professor Carlo La Vecchia of the University of Milan, who led the study.

“Despite these favourable trends in cancer death rates in Europe the number of cancer deaths remains approximately stable, due to the ageing of the population. Further, there is a persisting gap in cancer mortality between central and eastern European countries compared to western Europe, and this is likely to persist for the foreseeable future.”

The research, published in the Annals of Oncology on Wednesday, took WHO figures for cancer deaths across Europe in 2007 and used EUROSTAT population estimates to predict how many people are likely to die from tumours in 2011.

It found that in total, there will be 1,281,466 cancer deaths in the EU this year. Although this is higher than the 1,256,001 recorded four years ago, when converted into world standardised rates it means a fall from 153.8 deaths per 100,000 population to 142.8 in men, and from 90.7 to 85.3 among women.

Among men, Britain has lower mortality rates than any other country on the continent apart from Germany.

“Conversely, total female cancer mortality rates in the UK are high compared with the EU and the other studied countries (with the exception of Poland), but they fell 8 per cent with a predicted rate of 95.6/100,000 women in 2011.”

Concerning breast cancer: “The highest rates were in the UK (17.2/100,000 women) and the lowest ones in Spain (11.3/100,000 women).”

However deaths from the disease are falling “due to improved management and treatment of the disease”.
The authors also said that “the lung cancer epidemic in European women is still expanding”.

“Already in 2007-2008, lung cancer was the first cause of cancer death in the UK and in Poland, with rates higher than those of breast cancer.”

Lung cancer is predicted to kill 15,632 women in Britain this year, compared with 11,949 expected breast cancer victims.

Mike Hobday, Head of Policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “It is encouraging that the overall number of people dying from cancer is predicted to fall to 1.3 million cancer deaths in Europe in 2011. But in turn, the number of people living with cancer in the UK is increasing by 3 per cent every year. We know that there are currently 2 million people in the UK living with a cancer diagnosis, if the current rate continues, the number will have doubled to four million people by 2030.

“Cancer is changing. For many cancer is now a long term condition and it is important to realise that it is no longer just about people dying quickly of cancer or being cured. We know that the effects of cancer do not finish when treatment does. The NHS and medical profession need to recognise the long term impact of cancer and its treatment on patients so everyone gets the help that’s right for them.”

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