Volume 3, Number 2

Riyaz Shah PhD MRCP Consultant Medical Oncologist, Kent Oncology Centre, Maidstone Hospital, Maidstone

Lung cancer is one of the commonest malignancies in the UK. It is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Survival from lung cancer is poor (6% five-year survival). At presentation, most patients have advanced disease that is not amenable to curative therapy. These patients have treatment with palliative intent, which aims to prolong life, improve their symptoms and quality of life.

Michael D Peake, Editor

Until recently, making a tissue diagnosis and the staging of a patient with lung cancer have usually been considered as separate issues. A combination of new techniques, more integrated services and the pressures arising from the government’s cancer waiting times initiative are making more lung cancer teams realise that it makes sense to try and obtain tissue confirmation from an anatomical site that will also provide the stage of disease.

James Entwistle MBBS MRCP FRCR Consultant Radiologist; Achala Donuru MBBS MRCPCH DCH FRCR Specialist Registrar, Radiology Department, University Hospitals of Leicester

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the UK.1 Prognosis is primarily based on the histological type of tumour, the stage at the time of diagnosis and the performance status of the patient. A variety of non-invasive and invasive non-radiological and radiological procedures can be used in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer.

Carol Tan MRCS Specialist Registrar; Tom Treasure MD MS FRCS Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Thoracic Unit, Guy’s Hospital, London

Mesothelioma is steadily increasing in frequency and is now responsible for more deaths per year in the UK than melanoma or cervical cancer. About 60,000 new cases are expected over the next 45 years. Once the diagnosis is made, many patients are already in advanced stages of the disease.

Marianne C Nicolson MD BSc FRCP Consultant Medical Oncologist, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen

Lung cancer, of which 80% is of non-small cell subtype, remains common and difficult therapeutically, with the majority of patients still dying within five years of diagnosis. Better service organisation, more clinical trials and new drugs are all contributing to improvements in the treatment options for these patients.

Simon Taggart BSc MD FRCP Lead Lung Cancer Clinician for Salford and Trafford NHS Trusts

Professor Sir Ian Kennedy’s report on paediatric heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary1 played an influential role in shaping future medical care, clinical governance and NHS policy direction. Recommendation 17 of the report identified the need for clinicians to copy to their patients letters written between them about their individual care.