While the former presenter of the 1 p.m. news from TF1 Jean-Pierre Pernaut has just announced that he has lung cancer, Why doctor offers you, with the help of the new collective “Together we lungs”, a series to know everything about this disease. Today, let’s start with a small quantified assessment.
- With the desire to improve patient care through early detection of lung cancer, the collective “Together we lungs” was newly formed.
- Its ambition is to eliminate lung cancer as a cause of death.
With 46,363 new cases and 33,117 deaths estimated in 2018, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. Every 18 seconds, someone dies from this disease in the world.
A common cancer in men
The case of the former presenter of the 1 p.m. news from TF1 Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who has just announced that he has lung cancer, is unfortunately not exceptional among men: it is the second most common cancer. frequent of this sex (31,231 cases estimated in 2018) and the deadliest. In women, it is the third most common cancer (15,132 cases estimated in 2018) and the second deadliest, representing 9% of female cancers. “In the female population, lung cancer has been steadily increasing since 1980. notes the collective Together we lungs. “While the latest epidemiological data show a stable incidence of lung cancer in men, they are more pessimistic in women, in whom the evolution of the incidence of lung cancer is, on the other hand, considered worrying”, point out the experts.
Four stages of the disease
Lung cancer generally affects older people, with a median age at diagnosis of 67 in men and 65 in women. There are four different stages of the disease:
– Stages I and II correspond to cancers located in the thorax: currently, they represent only 15 to 30% of cases. However, it is at these localized stages that the prognosis is best, with recovery in at least 50% of cases.
– Stage III concerns locally advanced cancers: lymph nodes close to the lungs are affected. This situation represents 20% of cases, with a 5-year survival rate already considerably degraded: approximately 20%.
– Stage IV corresponds to metastatic cancers. 40 to 55% of patients are diagnosed at this late stage of the disease, for which the 5-year survival is only 3.8%.
“In summary, the stage at the time of diagnosis is therefore a major parameter in the evolution of the disease and the therapeutic possibilities. However, 75% of diagnoses take place at advanced or metastatic stages”, concludes the group.
7 out of 10 French people consider themselves ill-informed
Lung cancer is a disease little known to the general public: 7 Fout of 10 French people consider themselves ill-informed about their main symptoms. However, 61% of French people consider lung cancer extremely serious and are particularly afraid of it.
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