Desperate  Drive to Stop Teenagers Smoking as Cost of Lung Cancer to the UK Economy Tops £2.4 Billion Each Year

Source from:  The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday (uk)  11/08/2012

· Cost is higher than other common cancers, such as bowel or breast
· Each lung cancer patient costs the UK healthcare system £9,071 annually
·  157,000 children aged 11-15 start smoking in the UK each year

There is an 'urgent' need to reduce the number of teenagers taking up smoking, after experts estimated that the cost of lung cancer to the UK economy is £2.4 billion each year.
 
The figure, which is to be presented at the NCRI Cancer Conference in Liverpool later today, is higher than the cost of any other cancer, researchers said.

The economic cost, which includes healthcare costs and the potential wage loss of patients who have died, for bowel cancer is £1.6 billion and £1.5 billion for breast cancer, according to the new study.
 
Researchers at Oxford University calculated that the total annual cost of all cancers to the UK economy is £15.8 billion - £5.6 billion of which is for healthcare costs and £7.6 billion is attributable to premature deaths and time off work.
 
Each lung cancer patient costs the UK healthcare system £9,071 annually, the NCRI said.

Research author, Dr Jose Leal, at the Health Economics Research Centre, University of Oxford, said: 'Lung cancer costs more than any other cancer - mainly because of potential wage losses due to premature deaths from people in employment - about 60 per cent of the total economic costs - and high health care costs.
 
'The death rate from the disease remains high at 56 deaths per 100,000 people in the UK population annually, and almost a quarter of these occur before retirement.
 
'Our research shows that cancers impact the economy as a whole - and not just the health service.'

The NCRI said that each year in the UK, 41,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer, and eight in 10 cases are caused by smoking.
 
Data from the Office for National Statistics show that last year, 30,000 people died from lung cancer.
 
It accounted for 5.3 per cent of all deaths in women and 7.2 per cent of all deaths in men in 2011.
 
The NCRI said 157,000 children aged 11-15 start smoking in the UK each year.
 
Dr Jane Cope, director of the NCRI, said: 'These figures remind us that cancer has a cost, not just in professional healthcare but also in loss of earnings for patients, and for loved ones who give up work to look after them.

  

'Since 86 per cent of lung cancer deaths are linked to smoking, we can reduce these financial and societal costs by helping people to stop smoking.'
 
Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, added: 'This research highlights the stark economic impact of different cancers. But it's important to remember the very real human impact of cancer - the lives lost to, and affected by the disease.
 
'It's vital we prevent more young people from becoming addicted to a product that will kill half of all long term smokers.
 
'Putting an end to the silent salesman of the slickly-designed, colourful tobacco packaging is a crucial step towards making cigarettes less appealing to children.
 
'Stopping young people taking up this deadly addiction in the first place will not only reduce the number of lung cancer cases in the future but a range of other illnesses that continue to blight the lives of so many people.' Enditem