THE survival rate for lung cancer in Gwent's health board area is the lowest in Wales, an in-depth report into the disease reveals.

And there are striking differences in survival rates in different parts of Gwent, and between men and women in some areas.

The findings of a study into the impact of lung cancer in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area - one of seven such health board reports - forms part of a Wales-wide picture compiled by the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit.

It shows that the one-year relative survival rate for lung cancer in Gwent is 27.9 per cent among men and 29.8 among women.

Wales' highest one-year relative survival rate for men is 32.2 per cent, in north Wales (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board).

For women it is 36.8 per cent (Cardiff and Vale University Health Board).

Within Gwent, some of the differences in rates are even more striking.

Local rates have been measured based on 12 GP 'cluster areas'.

The area with the highest one-year survival rate among men is Torfaen South, with 39 per cent, while the highest such rate for women was also 39 per cent, in Caerphilly North.

But even within these areas, there were big variations, with the one-year survival rate for women in Torfaen South being 27.8 per cent, while the same rate for men in Caerphilly North was 29.9 per cent.

By contrast, one-year survival rates among men in Newport Central, Newport East and Monmouthshire South, and among women in Monmouthshire North, Monmouthshire South and Newport East were below 25 per cent.

The most striking - and worrying - one-year survival rate however is that for men in Newport West, at just 13.4 per cent. This is well below the rates for men in other areas, and less than half that for women in the same area (29.9 per cent).

Survival rates are consistently higher for lung cancer patients aged 75 or younger, than for over-75s, in Gwent and in Wales as a whole, and generally, women have higher survival rates than men.

The findings will be vital in helping health boards identify and focus on addressing, disease hotspots in their areas, and on a Wales-wide level will help the NHS target health inequalities.

The overall findings indicate that lung cancer shows the widest inequalities of all cancers in Wales, in terms of the toll it exacts in more deprived, compared to less deprived, areas.

It should also help to further concentrate the minds of those charged with tackling such inequalities, given that around 70 per cent of people who receive a lung cancer diagnosis in Wales die within a year, and survival rates here are almost the lowest in Europe.