A study using World Health Organisation data reports that women in Britain are more likely to be killed by breast cancer than any other European countriesOn the other end of the spectrum, the lowest mortality rate for women with breast cancer comes from Spain. What’s more alarming is that lung cancer kills even more women in Britain.

A study predicts that in Britain, 156,000 people are susceptible to various disease forms out of 1.28 million people in the Europe. Though the rates for mortality are falling, the death numbers are constant due to the ageing of the population.

Professor Carlo La Vecchia from the University of Milan who led the research said that the top causes of death from cancer are breast, colorectal and lung cancer. He also added that there is a persisting gap in cancer mortality between countries in eastern and central Europe compared to those in western Europe. According to him, this trend will be sustained in the near future. This research has been published in the Annals of Oncology.

For the men, it is a different story. In fact, British men are less likely to die than their European counterparts. The study also reported that the total female cancer mortality rates in Britain are hovering high compared to the others in Europe with the exception of Poland.

In addition, it is found that lung cancer tops the cancer death rates in both UK and Poland during the period of 2007 to 2008. This year, lung cancer is set to kill approximately 15,632 British women while breast cancer has been predicted to kill 11,949 victims.