‘Significantly higher’ lung cancer incidence in Western Trust and drop in survival over COVID-19

New research from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry at Queen’s shows that between 2016 and 2020 people from the north west were more likely to receive a lung cancer diagnosis than their counterparts in all other areas apart from Belfast. Over the five years there were 1,116 cases of lung cancer in the Western Trust - an average of 223 cases per year. This gave a standardised incidence ratio, which takes account of population size and age structure, of 106.7 - against a baseline for the north of 100. Researchers at the NICR point out that income is one of the major risk factors for lung cancer.

“Lung cancer incidence rates were 69% higher in the most deprived areas compared to the Northern Ireland average and were 34% lower than average in the least deprived areas,” they state.

Age also significantly increases the risk of a diagnosis.

“Lung cancer risk was strongly related to age with 42% of cases occurring among people aged 75 years and over. The odds of developing lung cancer by the age of 75 during 2016-2020 was 1 in 24. By the age of 85 it was 1 in 13,” the authors of the report state.

The report also analysed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lung cancer incidence and survival rates.

Comparing the April-December 2020 period when COVID-19 was present to the equivalent April-December period in 2018-2019, the number of cases of lung cancer decreased by 7 per cent from 1,029 per year in 2018-2019 to 952 in 2020.

However, ‘observed survival (which considers death from any cause) among lung cancer patients one month after diagnosis decreased from 87% among those diagnosed in April-December of 2018-2019 to 83% among those diagnosed in AprilDecember of 2020, while three-month survival decreased from 70% to 63%’.