He, formed by more than 700 specialists, has alerted Tuesday that 2024 died for the first time in Spain more women for lung cancer than they did for breast cancer, according to the provisional data of.
In 2024, according to these data, a total of 23. 239 deaths from bronchial and lung cancer were recorded in Spain, with an increase of 1.9 % compared to 2023. Of them, 6,679 corresponded to women, which represents an increase of 7 % in female mortality due to this pathology in just one year.
“What has happened is and that it has not been possible to stop. For the first time in history, lung cancer has surpassed that of breast as the main cause of oncological mortality among women in Spain,” says Dr. Alberto Ruano, responsible for epidemiology of the GECP and professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
The GECP considers this data as an “alarming inflection point” that directly impacts female health and that, in large part, is associated with the increase in tobacco consumption among women during the last decades.
“We have urgently claiming the implementation of effective policies, such as educational campaigns focused on the prevention of female smoking, aimed at both adolescents and adult women or the reinforcement of tools for smoking cessation, guaranteeing free or affordable access to pharmacological aid, psychological support and monitoring supervised by professionals,” says Ruano.
From the GECP it is also highlighted that, in 2024, cancer remained the first cause of death in Spain (26.6% of the total), surpassing diseases of the circulatory system (26.1%). In this context, lung cancer was the deadliest tumor, with 23,239 deaths, followed very far from colon cancer.
“We want to launch a firm call to the urgent and coordinated action between health administrations, professional organizations and civil society. Lung cancer represents a public health emergency that requires prioritizing the fight against smoking, improving the monitoring of the pathology and supporting research,” says Dr. Mariano Provencio, president of the GECP and head of Oncology of the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid.
Provencio considers that in the case of lung tumors in women, a “research intensified in biological, diagnostic and specific therapies of the impact of this neoplasm between female sex is necessary.”
