Lung cancer has now become the deadliest of all forms of cancer in many developed countries including the USA where about 170,000 people die from the disease each year. Worldwide this type of cancer kills an estimated 3.5 million people a year; a startling statistic when you consider it's largely preventable.

More than one billion people worldwide are smokers even though nine out of ten lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. By the year 2020 it's estimated that as many as ten million people a year will die of smoking related diseases unless radical action is taken to curb the advance of the mega-bucks tobacco industry into Third World countries. About three quarters of those ten million deaths will be in developing nations.

Lung Cancer in the developing world

The good news for richer countries is that public health messages seem to be hitting home and lung cancer deaths are starting to decline. The bad news is that if you started smoking 40 years ago (before the dangers were widely known) and you are diagnosed with lung cancer today, you have only a slim chance of surviving more than a year. Lung cancer is rarely detected in its early stages but when it is, the prognosis is good with speedy and appropriate treatment. That is why campaigners are demanding more funding for early detection and research into new and better treatments. But the disease currently receives far less funding in developed countries than other forms of cancer which elicit public sympathy (such as breast and prostate cancer.)

Lung Cancer and passive smoking

There is a certain stigma attached to lung cancer and an attitude that the patient probably brought it on themselves. That is particularly hard for those who started smoking without knowing the health risks and for victims of passive smoking.

Thanks to government regulation and public education the long term picture regarding the reduction of lung cancer deaths in wealthier corners of the world is fairly optimistic. Not so for poorer countries which are the new targets of the tobacco moguls. Tired of being taken to court and hampered by advertising controls in countries like the USA and UK, cigarette manufacturers are now setting their sights on developing nations and governments which are easily lured by the promise of sizeable inward investment.