The incidence of breast cancer rises dramatically with age. It cannot be prevented, and there's no certain cure except in the early stages of the disease. Survival rates can be significantly increased if breast cancer is found and treated early enough. Widespread education and screening programmes for women over 50 must therefore be a high priority. Lung cancer, at one time far more prevalent among men, is now the sixth most frequent cancer in the world among women.
Lung cancer is virtually impossible to detect early but is largely preventable.
Persuading women to stop smoking, or better yet, never to start, would help Member States save thousands of lives and reduce the incidence, severity and high cost of smoking related illnesses. Over the last decade researchers have learned a great deal about the causes, prevention and management of osteoporosis, an underlying bone condition responsible for many of the hip, wrist and vertebral fractures in older women. Osteoporosis is a particularly serious problem for Europe's ageing population. Fractures are painful, disabling and costly, both in terms of quality of life and economics. Many patients with hip fractures never return to full function or good health.