ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Lung cancer (bronchial carcinoma) is the commonest cancer in the Western world and is the most lethal cancer. In the UK it is the commonest cancer in men and the third commonest cancer in women. Death due to lung cancer is the third commonest cause of death after heart disease and pneumonia. 34,000 people died of lung cancer in 1999. It has always been the commonest cause of cancer death in men but in 2001 it also became the commonest cause of cancer death in women, overtaking breast cancer. There are more deaths in the UK from lung cancer than from breast, colon, prostate, and cervical cancer put together. Lung cancer was a rare disease at the start of the 20th century but now, following exposure to aetiological agents and with an increasing lifespan, it has become the commonest and most lethal cancer.
