Lung cancer mortality statistics

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK (2010), accounting for more than a fifth of all cancer deaths. It is the most common cause of cancer death in men in the UK (2010) accounting for almost a quarter (around 24%) of all male deaths from cancer. Lung cancer is also the most common cause of cancer death in women in the UK (2010), accounting for around a fifth (around 21%) of all female cancer deaths. 

Lung cancer has an enormous impact on national mortality and currently accounts for 6% of all deaths in the UK. There are over twice as many deaths from lung cancer as the next ranked cancer, bowel cancer, which accounts for around 16,000 deaths per year.

In 2010, there were 34,859 deaths from lung cancer in the UK (Table 2.1): 19,410 (56%) in men and 15,449 (44%) in women, giving a male:female ratio of around 13:10.1-3 The crude mortality rate shows that there were around 63 lung cancer deaths for every 100,000 males in the UK and around 49 for every 100,000 females.

Table 2.1: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), Number of Deaths, Crude and European Age-Standardised (AS) Mortality Rates per 100,000 Population, UK, 2010

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*95% LCL and 95% UCL are the 95% lower and upper confidence limits around the AS rate

Within the UK there is some variation between countries. European age-standardised rates (AS rates) of lung cancer are significantly higher in Scotland compared with England, Northern Ireland and Wales (Table 2.1).1-3 Rates in England are also significantly lower than the UK and mortality rates in Northern Ireland are significant higher than the UK (males only).4

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Lung cancer mortality is strongly related to age. In the UK between 2008 and 2010, around 78% of lung cancer deaths were in people aged 65 years and over, while just over a fifth (around 22%) of deaths were in people aged under 65 (Figure 2.1).1-3 Age-specific mortality rates increase sharply from around age 50-54 years in both men and women, reaching a peak at age 85+ in men and at age 80-84 years in women. The male:female ratio increases with age, from 12:10 at age 50-54, to 22:10 at age 85+.

Figure 2.1: Lung Cancer (C33-C34) Average Number of Deaths Per Year and Age-Specific Mortality Rates, UK, 2008-2010

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section updated 13/04/12

The importance of lung cancer as a cause of death has grown throughout most of the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, lung cancer was a rare disease causing around one death annually in every 100,000 people.5 By 1950, the lung cancer death rate had risen six-fold in men and three-fold in women, prompting the first epidemiological study that linked tobacco smoking and lung cancer in Britain.5 By the early 1970s, lung cancer AS mortality rates had further increased to more than 100 deaths per 100,000 men, and around 19 deaths per 100,000 women (Figure 2.2).

Overall, lung cancer mortality rates have decreased in the UK since the early 1970s (Figure 2.2).1-3 For men, European AS mortality rates were around 56% lower in 2008-2010 than in 1972-1974 when male rates peaked. However, for women, mortality rates have been increasing. They were more than 64% higher in 2008-2010 than in 1971-1973.

Figure 2.2: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, UK, 1971-2010

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The different patterns of lung cancer death rates in men and women reflect past smoking behaviour: men started to smoke earlier and more heavily than women, but then male smoking cessation has resulted in falling lung cancer mortality rates.6,7 The death ratios by birth cohort illustrate this clearly, with the highest rates observed for men born around the turn of the century and for women in the 1920s (Figure 2.3).8

Figure 2.3: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), Birth Cohort Mortality, Ages 35-84, England and Wales

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In England and Wales, lung cancer mortality rates have increased, peaked and then decreased since the 1950s for all male age groups and some female age groups (Figures 2.4 and 2.5).1-3,9 In men, rates peaked first in the younger age groups in the 1950s and 1960s, and peaked last in men aged 85+ in the late 1980s.

Figure 2.4: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, Males, By Age, England and Wales, 1950-2010

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In women, rates rose for all age groups for most of the period until the late 1980s when rates began to fall in the 55-64 age group, followed by the 65-74 age group in the mid 1990s. However, rates in women in the 75-84 and 85+ age groups have continued to rise during the 1990s and into the twenty-first century (Figure 2.5).1-3,9

Figure 2.5: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, Females, By Age, England and Wales, 1950-2010

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Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide, estimated to be responsible for nearly one in five (18%), or 1.38 million cancer deaths in 2008. Lung cancer mortality rates are lowest in Middle Africa for both sexes and highest in Central and Eastern Europe for men and Northern America for women, with an almost 19-fold variation in male mortality rates between the regions of the world, and a 30-fold variation in female rates (Figure 2.6).10

Figure 2.6: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), World Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, World Regions, 2008 Estimates

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Within the 27 countries of the European Union (EU-27), the highest lung cancer European AS mortality rates are in Hungary for males (around 107 deaths per 100,000) and Denmark for females (around 45 deaths per 100,000). The lowest rates are in Sweden for males (around 30 deaths per 100,000), and Latvia for females (around 8 deaths per 100,000) (Figure 2.7).11

In 1975, the lung cancer mortality rate in the UK was the highest of the EU member states, but the ranking has fallen considerably since then, reflecting the decline in lung cancer rates among males in the UK.12 UK lung cancer mortality rates are estimated to be the 8th lowest for males, and 4th highest for females in Europe (EU-27).11

Figure 2.7: Lung Cancer (C33-C34), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, EU-27 Countries, 2008 Estimates

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Lung cancer European AS mortality rates are around 3 times higher in the most deprived wards of England and Wales as compared with the least deprived wards,13 reflecting the higher incidence of lung cancer in these most deprived groups.14 A similar association with deprivation has been reported in Scotland and Northern Ireland.15,16

section updated 13/04/12