[Adverse trends in the development of mortality in lung cancer in the Czech Republic].

The mortality from malignant tumours of the respiratory system in men in the Czech Republik increased steeply during 1950-1967 from the initial value of 22.3 per 100,000 men to more than triple, while in women the values persisted during this period with minor accidental deviations at a level of cca 5.7 per 100,000 women (with standardization for the world population). During the subsequent 20-year period there was a rising trend in both sexes; in 1987 the value for men was 77.4 per 100,000, for women 9.1 per 100,000. The age-specific mortality from malignant tumours of the respiratory system had in none of the evaluated age groups of men and women a declining trend, while in the USA and in Great Britain in younger men and in the group of youngest women a decline is recorded. The cigarette consumption in the Czech Republic after the Second World War increased steeply to the end of the sixties; in 1971-1987 it did not rise further and varied mostly within the range of 19 and 20 billion cigarettes per year, i. e. 2500 cigarettes per inhabitant above 15 years of age, regardless whether he smoked or not. To change the hitherto adverse development of mortality from malignant tumours of the respiratory system it is essential to reduce in the first place the intoxication of the population with carcinogens of tobacco smoke, by influencing smoking habits and by reducing carcinogenic substances in cigarettes and by some modifications of the working and living environment, by provision of an optimal content of probably protective substances in foods and some other measures.