International differences in lung cancer survival by sex, histological type and stage at diagnosis: an ICBP SURVMARK-2 study

A new article by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partner institutions reports the international variation in stage distribution at diagnosis and survival by stage for patients with lung cancer, in seven high-income countries in 2010–2014. This study is part of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) Cancer Survival in High-Income Countries (SURVMARK-2) project.

The researchers observed persisting differences in the stage distribution of lung cancers across sex, lung cancer subtypes, and countries, which may partly explain the observed differences in survival. The study found higher survival in Canada and Norway, intermediate survival in Australia and Denmark, and lower survival in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Ireland. Survival differences were also observed within cancer stage groups.

The findings show that differences in survival could be partly due to differences in stage at diagnosis or early detection, and also due to quality of treatment, health-care system factors, and the prevalence of comorbid conditions in the included populations.

These results are also accessible through a publicly available online tool.

Araghi M, Fidler-Benaoudia M, Arnold M, Rutherford M, Bardot A, Ferlay J, et al.
International differences in lung cancer survival by sex, histological type and stage at diagnosis: an ICBP SURVMARK-2 study
Thorax, Published online 19 July 2021;
https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216555

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