The incidence of lung cancer among Austrian women shows an alarming increase with almost twice as many cases as 20 years ago, figures from Statistics Austria showed Tuesday.

The figures show that about 1,600 new cases of lung cancer in women are recorded each year, in line with current trends in Europe where lung cancer is soon expected to overtake breast cancer as the most fatal form of cancer among women, and largely due to increased smoking habits.

Despite a significantly higher 2,700 cases of lung cancer recorded among men annually, a prognosis commissioned by the Ministry of Health shows that cases among men are unlikely to increase significantly to the year 2030.

For women, however, the total is expected to increase to 3,208 by 2030, which would mean 250 more cases expected than for men by that year.

The total number of new cases of all kinds of cancer for both sexes is also expected to increase by 2030 to 44,000 cases, up from the 39,300 cases in 2010, an increase of around 13 percent.

The number of deaths as a result of the disease is forecast to rise 16 percent from 19,567 in 2010 to 22,707 cases in 2030. Enditem