5 myths about lung cancer everyone needs to stop believing - The Independent

Experts debunk common misconceptions around lung cancer.

However, there are still some misconceptions around lung cancer – it’s not necessarily just a case of being a ‘smoker’s disease’.

According to John Costello, pulmonologist at the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinichealthcare.co.uk), “Lung cancer is certainly more common in older people – the average age of diagnosis is 70 years.

According to Lisa Jacques, lead specialist cancer nurse at Perci Health (percihealth.com), “Most people develop lung cancer in their 60s and 70s, after many years of smoking, but occasionally people get lung cancer at a much younger age, even in their 20s and 30s.”.

“Smoking is the cause of most lung cancers and the biggest risk factor, but about 10% of people who get lung cancer have never smoked,” explains Jacques.

“Lung cancer has a 60 per cent survival rate for five years in people with localised disease,” says Costello.

However, he says there are “new techniques in screening for lung cancer, such as CT scans in smokers over 50 years with a serious tobacco background”.

According to Cancer Research UK, men are more likely to get cancer than women (52 per cent of lung cancer cases are men, compared to 48 per cent of women).

However, these margins are small, and women absolutely do need to be aware of lung cancer.

“Lung cancer has been an increasing problem in women since they caught up with men in terms of smoking habit, and they are therefore at risk if they smoke,” says Costello.

“Some of the non-smoking related lung cancers are more common in women.”?

Jacques adds: “It is the third most common cancer in the UK, and in women it is the second most common cancer type.”.