[The progression of lung cancer incidence in France (1978-2000)]

International audience; INTRODUCTION: Lung cancer is the most common cause of death from malignant disease in the world. Our objective was to describe the progression of this cancer's incidence, and the changing distribution of histological types in France between 1978 and 2000. METHODS: National incidence rates were obtained by modelling lung cancer incidence data provided by the French cancer registries, taking into account national mortality data. These registries also provided information about histological type. RESULTS: In the year 2000, with 28,000 estimated new diagnoses, lung cancer represented 10.0% of all incident cancers and was responsible for 18.1% of deaths from cancer. From 1980 to 2000, the incidence rose from 47.4 to 52.2 per hundred thousand in men and from 3.7 to 8.6 per hundred thousand in women. The risk of developing lung cancer, which remained constant in men, has increased considerably (+451%) between the generation of women born in 1953 and those born in 1913. The proportion of epidermoid cancers has dropped whilst that of adenocarcinomas has risen sharply. CONCLUSIONS: The last few years have seen a large increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women and an increasing incidence of adenocarcinoma in both men and women.