Canadian women have highest rate of lung cancer deaths in developed world

A new report shows Canadian women have the highest rate of lung cancer deaths in the western world.

The report, based on data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, shows that Canada's lung cancer mortality rate among women was 47 per 100,000 people in 2012, almost double the average of other developed countries, reports CBC.

Canada was compared to countries such as Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Of significant finding was that approximately 20 per cent of Canadian women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.

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As well, non-smoking women were twice as likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than non-smoking men.

Dr. Natasha Leighl, a medical oncologist at Toronto's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, says that doctors are unclear about why this gender difference exists.

"We've talked about environmental risks as well as things like air pollution, things like radon, but there may even be some genetic differences," she explains.

The data also showed that Canadian men fared better over the past 30 years in terms of lung cancer mortality, which the report authors suggest could be due to the fact that smoking rates among men were consistently lower than the OECD average.

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Yet among Canadian women, smoking rates were at times higher that the OECD average.

Lung cancer kills more Canadians than any other cancer -- and the five-year survival rate for the disease is only 17 per cent, compared to 63 per cent of all other cancers.

The good news is that Canada performed much better on breast cancer screening and breast cancer survival rates, which the researchers believe may be due to early detection treatment.