Date Published: 2 March 2012

Efforts to diagnose cancer early need to be better tailored to different age groups

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Efforts to diagnose cancer early need to be better tailored to different age groups according to recent research reported by Cancer Research UK.

According to the study (published in the British Journal of Cancer - see below), older women with breast cancer face a higher risk of their breast cancer being diagnosed at a late stage. Conversely, the risk of an advanced stage diagnosis of lung cancer decreases with age.

The researchers used the Eastern Cancer Registration and Information Centre (ECRIC) data on stage ? a measure of how advanced the cancer is when diagnosed. The purpose of the study was to find out if a link could be identified between age or socio-economic background and being diagnosed with advanced stage cancer. Researchers considered approximately 17,800 women with breast cancer and over 13,200 patients with lung cancer in the east of England who were diagnosed between 2006 and 2009.

Breast Cancer
It was found that compared with women aged 65-69, women aged 70-74 had a 21% higher chance of a late stage breast cancer diagnosis. The likelihood of an advanced breast cancer diagnosis increased as women aged ? even accounting for the effect of screening. It was 46% higher in women aged 75-79. The study also found that late stage breast cancer diagnosis was more common in women from deprived backgrounds.

Lung Cancer
However, it was found to be less likely that older patients would be diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer than younger patients. Compared with people aged 65-69, people aged 70-74 were 18% less likely of be diagnosed with late stage lung cancer and this chance decreased further with age - for people aged 75-79 it was 26% lower. Late stage lung cancer diagnosis was more common in men.

Dr Georgios Lyratzopoulos, study author based at the University of Cambridge, said:

" Patient awareness of the signs of breast cancer is known to be lower among older women and this may explain why breast cancer is diagnosed later among this age group.
_But it is puzzling why older patients have a lower risk of advanced stage lung cancer. More research is needed to better understand this pattern."

The researchers added that the strong likelihood of older women being diagnosed with late stage breast cancer was worrying given that the risk of the disease increases with age.

Dr David Greenberg, study author based at ECRIC, said:

" Collecting staging data has proved difficult in the past but this data is vital to understanding how to improve the diagnosis of cancer. ECRIC has the most complete information on stage. A modernisation programme for cancer registries aims to improve the collection of such information nationwide by end of 2012."

Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, said:

" If cancer is caught early, patients usually have a better chance of beating the disease as more effective treatment options are available.
_ We have made great progress in improving cancer survival rates in the last 40 years, but there is still more work to be done to help more people survive cancer.
_ Collecting information on stage at diagnosis is vital to do this and we must think how to target messages appropriately to the right audiences.
_ Cancer Research UK works to raise symptom awareness, and encourage and enable people to go visit their doctor as soon as their notice anything unusual for their bodies."

Ref. to Paper:
Lyratzopoulos, G et al., Variation in advanced stage at diagnosis of lung and female breast cancer in an English region 2006-2009 British Journal of Cancer (2012)
DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2012.30

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