These are worrying figures. According to the Cascade study, women are more likely to develop lung cancer than men, even though their tobacco use is equal.

“The positive screening rate is two to three more in women than in men. (…) One in thirty participants tested positive. Our prediction was 1%, the reality is 3%”told the World Marie-Pierre Revelhead of radiology department of Cochin hospital, at the initiative of this study.

These results confirm the conclusions of another study, published in August 2022 by The Regional Health Lancet, which makes it possible to draw up a precise inventory every ten years. Thereby, in 2000, out of 9,000 lung cancer patients, women accounted for 16% of new cases. While in 2020 they were 34.6%.

Soon the leading cause of cancer death in women?

“In fifty years we have gone from an exceptional arch disease to a disease that tends to become, in France among women, the leading cause of death from cancer before breast cancer », underlined Marie-Pierre Revel. And this situation is all the more worrying since, according to the latest data from Public Health France, daily smoking among women is on the rise. It fell from 20.7% to 23% between 2019 and 2021.

Another alarming fact provided by the Cascade study: the false positive screening rate is very low, around 0.6%. Indeed, the exam is read four times, first by a generalist radiologist trained in this type of imaging, then by artificial intelligence software and finally by two experts.

The goal of this study is to one day successfully detect this disease using a low-dose scanner in women in France. Marie-Pierre Revel hopes these new data will revive the idea of ​​systematic screening of smokers.

Do you like our articles? You will love our newsletters! Sign up for free on this page.