British Bangladeshi men have the highest rates of lung cancer in England, finds new study.
Researchers from Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences undertook the study to see how the disease affects different communities and found significant disparities in rates of diagnoses.
Dr Daniel Tzu-Hsuan Chen, study lead said: ‘This isn’t just about smoking, our research shows that ethnic background and social circumstances play crucial roles in both cancer risk and how the disease develops.’
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The researchers analysed health records of over 17.5 million people between 2005 and 2019. All participants were over 25 years of age, and 84,253 people were diagnosed with lung cancer.
They found that rates and types of lung cancer were found to be associated with factors such as ethnicity, gender, smoking status and socioeconomic background. Lung cancer occurred twice as frequently in the most deprived areas compared with the least – with 215 cases per 100,000 people among men in the poorest areas, compared with 94 cases in the most affluent, the study found.
While people from Indian, Caribbean, Black African, Chinese and other Asian backgrounds were twice as likely to be diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, one of the most common types of lung cancer, Bangladeshi men in England had the highest rates of all types of lung cancer.
Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox, senior author of the study, said: ‘This research provides the strongest evidence yet of how your ethnic background and social circumstances affect both your risk of developing lung cancer and the type of cancer you may develop. These findings are particularly timely as the NHS rolls out its targeted lung cancer screening programme.’
The NHS initiative aims to reach 40% of the eligible population by March 2025 and 100% by 2030. It follows a pilot that began in 2019, where 900,000 people in parts of England were invited for checks, with more than 2,000 detected as having cancer and 76% of lung cancers caught early, compared with 29% before it began.
During the programme, screening took place in mobile units in places such as supermarket car parks and focused on deprived neighbourhoods where people are four times more likely to smoke.
Professor Hippisley-Cox added that while it is important to continue with targeted screening, addressing root causes is equally critical. ‘Tackling these disparities isn’t just about lung cancer: when we address these fundamental inequalities in healthcare access and social deprivation, we can improve health outcomes across many conditions.’