Volume 4, Number 1

Michael D Peake, Editor

I have listed below some attention-grabbing facts.
• In the UK there is one charity solely committed to lung cancer – the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (RCLCF). There are over 200 charities devoted to breast cancer.
• More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer.

Noelle O’Rourke MA MD MRCP FRCR Consultant in Clinical Onocology; Rebecca Muirhead MB BCh MRCP SpR in Clinical Oncology, Beatson Oncology Centre, Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow

Diffuse malignant pleural mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon tumour but its incidence continues to increase, with a predicted peak of approximately 3,000 male deaths per annum in the UK by the year 2020.

Bernadette Devine BSc(Hons) MSc RGN Independent Consultant, Kent and Medway Cancer Network, B Devine Consultancy Ltd; Claire Henry RGN PGD BS(Hons) National Programme Director, NHS End of Life Care Programme; Anita Hayes SRN DN RNT Nurse Director, Kent and Medway Cancer Network

Dealing with lung cancer includes particular psychological, psychosocial and psychospiritual aspects of concern, coupled with the physical reality of the disease and the particular prognosis of any given individual patient and their professional carers. Alongside this, staff resourcing goes beyond pure workforce capacity issues and the concomitant economic costs, to include the human cost of caring for this group of patients.

Michael D Peake MB ChB FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. National Clinical Lead for Lung Cancer

There have been significant improvements in the quality of cancer services in the UK in recent years. In 1995, the Calman–Hine report1 stated that cancer outcomes were poorer here than in most of the Western world. ‘Improving Outcome Guidance’, published in 1998, was the first lung cancer-specific guidance to purchasers and came with £10m of additional recurring funding for services in England, from which many local units benefited greatly.

Elin Roddy MRCP Specialist Registrar; Mike Ward DM FRCP Consultant Physician, Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s Mill Hospital, Nottinghamshire

In 1950, a flurry of papers identified the causal link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer. We now recognise that inhaling tobacco smoke is responsible for up to 90% of lung cancer deaths. This scything down of the population equates to 33,500 deaths a year (22% of all cancer deaths) and many young people being deprived of years of life.

Stephen Falk FRCR FRCP MD Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, Bristol

The advent of active, targeted therapies, with a concomitant rapid increase in the number of active agents available for use in lung cancer, has awakened interest in the concept of individualising patient care. This is clearly to be preferred to the current generic use of protocol-driven chemotherapy regimens, and may develop by the use of tumour-related biomarkers.