Are our attitudes towards lung cancer costing lives?
Lung Cancer is Australia’s biggest cancer killer with only a 15 percent survival rate after 5 years of diagnosis — a very low rate compared to other forms of cancer. A new report by Lung Foundation Australia suggests that Australians lack the empathy for lung cancer that they do for other cancers because of its high association with smoking. This stigma means less money for research: despite killing three times as many people as breast cancer, lung cancer receives one fifth of the funding. We spoke with Lisa Briggs who was diagnosed with Stage IV Lung Cancer two years ago, despite being a non-smoker.
