Coughing for three weeks? You need a cancer check: Patients urged to contact doctor as new campaign is launched
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Patients with a cough lasting more than three weeks will be urged to see their doctor under a lung cancer campaign being launched today.
Fewer than one in seven of the 38,000 new cases every year are diagnosed early enough for effective treatment by surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
Health officials say that, while the survival rates for other forms of cancer have dramatically improved over the past 30 years, they have remained almost static for lung cancer.
Bad sign: Persistent coughing is one of the symptoms of early stage lunch cancer
On average patients will live for just five months after diagnosis compared with nearly ten years for cancers affecting the bowel and breast. This makes it by far the deadliest form of the disease in England – with a death toll of 28,000 lives a year.
There are a total of 38,000 new cases every year but only 15 per cent of adults are diagnosed at the ‘early-stage’ when it can be effectively treated by surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
NHS officials say that while the survival rates for other forms of cancer have dramatically improved over the past 30 years, they have remained almost static for lung cancer.
On average patients will live for just five months after diagnosis compared to nearly ten years for cancers affecting the bowel and breast.
High risk: Lung cancer patients live on average five months after diagnosis
Experts say one reason patients are diagnosed so late is that they are unaware of the symptoms which include a persistent cough, chest pain, breathlessness and weight loss.
Under a new campaign launched today, patients are being urged to see their GP if they have had a cough for more than three weeks.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘More people die from lung cancer than any other cancer in England, but many people don’t know the signs and symptoms that could save their lives.
‘The message from this campaign is clear - if you have a persistent cough, go and see your doctor. The earlier lung cancer is diagnosed, the more likely that treatment will be successful.
The £1.8 million campaign is part of a Government drive to improve early cancer diagnosis in the hope of saving an extra 5,000 lives a year by 2015.
From six weeks starting until mid-August, adverts will appear on the TV, radio and in newspapers and magazines highlighting the early warning signs of lung cancer.
Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England said: ‘These figures show that more needs to be done to raise awareness of the signs of lung cancer and ultimately save more lives.
‘Only by increasing awareness of potential symptoms, and encouraging people to visit their doctor sooner rather than later, will we see the number of early diagnoses, and people surviving the disease, start to rise.’
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