Worldwide, lung cancer kills more people than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined.1 For many years, lung cancer was viewed as a man’s disease: indeed, at one time, twice as many men were diagnosed. We must retire these outdated assumptions: today, in women, lung cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading killer. Irrespective of gender, tobacco use is the main culprit, yet approximately 20% of women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.2 We must recognise lung cancer as one that impacts the lives of men and women while recognising the specific gendered differences. Attention must be focused on this disease for more than a single day each August, or a month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, each November.
Today, we are breathing in a new era for lung cancer. Since 2015, progress in this field has outweighed all of the advances of the previous half century.3 Late diagnosis, poor access to treatment and a mixture of fatalism and stigma has meant that outcomes are often poor for people with lung cancer. With new treatment options available, now is the time to review the current picture of disease burden, address unmet needs and improve the management of lung cancer.
Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide.4 In January 2020, the American Cancer Society announced that lung cancer mortality in the United States has fallen between 4-5% annually since 2013.5 Despite this progress, more needs to be accomplished. The European Commission along with the European Parliament are committed to developing a renewed approach to addressing cancer: lung cancer should be at the core of this revitalised approach. Awareness needs to be improved to ensure that people at high-risk for lung cancer are identified, properly screened and obtain necessary diagnostic testing to identify the disease as early as possible.
There is neither time nor room for complacency: we are in a race against time. Lung cancer will not wait.
