Mortality trends of lung cancer in Austria and the Czech Republic

This paper concerns itself with possible reasons for differences in lung ca ncer (ICD9-162) mortality rates in Austria and the Czech Republic. Lung cancer mortality in Austrian men reached its peak in 1973 and decrease d gradually after a plateau by 23% since then, while the Czech mortality ra te in men was constantly increasing till 1986 and then started to decline b y 21% till 1998. As far as women in both countries are concerned, the risk of dying from lung cancer has risen dramatically for the last 20 years. In Czech men the mortality rate between 1970-1998 was significantly higher tha n in Austrian men while in women the death rates were closely similar. Diff erences cannot be explained by different smoking habits. In the past occupa tional exposure to cancerogenic agents in the Czech Republic was certainly one of the futile factors for the different lung cancer mortality rates. Ho wever, nowadays, Austria and the Czech Republic have to cope with similar p roblems particularly with an increasing number of children and adolescents (especially females) starting smoking very early. Activities to prevent children and adolescents from starting or stopping to smoke will be the only way to control lung cancer epidemic in the 21st cen tury.