Lung Cancer â Perceptual Barriers to Cure

Long considered a self-inflicted disease of the poor and the old, lung cancer has never had the emotional cache of other malignant disease. Nonetheless, it remains the commonest cause of cancer death in Ireland, and continues to carry a particularly grim prognosis. Only a quarter of those diagnosed with lung cancer will survive a year, with five-year survival just over 10 % 1. While great strides have been made in improving outcomes in other malignant disease in this country â notably haematological malignancies â survival rates have not dramatically changed in lung cancer in the last fifteen years. Despite huge advances in our understanding of the molecular biology of lung cancer, and the consequent advent of tailored, targeted chemotherapy, along with concomitant advances in radiotherapy, surgical resection remains the most reliable curative option. Less than one in five Irish lung cancer patients will undergo surgical resection 2 â any attempt at improving survival here must surely focus on increasing this number. Why do so few patients with lung cancer receive curative therapy? In Ireland, a large majority present with advanced, incurable disease, while others wit