Lung cancer remains the deadliest type of cancer globally accounting for more deaths than the combined mortality rate for other types of cancer including breast, colon, kidney, liver, skin cancer and prostate. each year, 1.18 million people die from the disease.

Five-year survival rates for lung cancer are also very poor at only 15 percent compared to breast cancer survival which is at around 89 percent.

In the Philippines, figures show that despite the increase of breast cancer incidence, lung cancer kills 80 percent of those diagnosed (8518 or 14 percent mortality among 10643 or 17.4 percent incidence) of all diagnosed with the disease compared to 35 percent mortality among breast cancer patients (4085 or 11.9 mortality among 11524 or 31.9percent incidence).

The Philippine Society of Medical Oncology, in cooperation with the C-Network and Roche Philippines embarked on an awareness campaign to convey the much-needed steps to elevate awareness on the disease and expound on the new developments in screenings and therapies for the disease.

Despite these alarming statistics, lung cancer is not as highlighted in mass media, as much as other cancer types. A study in the US indicated that of 600 randomly selected cancer stories that appeared over the course of a year, 61 percent reported on breast cancer; 23 percent on prostate cancer; 17 percent on colorectal cancer; and only 9 percent focused on lung cancer outside of tobacco and smoking issues.

Lung cancer may be asymptomic is most cases, resulting in the majority of cases being diagnosed at an advanced and sometimes incurable stage. however, despite symptoms being non-specific there are new diagnostics that a doctor may perform that could make it possible to have an early diagnosis of the disease.

Dr. Dennis Ramon M. Tudtud, PSMO president, said common symptoms are mostly non-specific and can be indicative of other illness or conditions. This means that symptoms are sometimes disregarded, a major factor why many patients go to their doctors at a later stage when the disease had already advanced.

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