New figures have revealed a lack of improvement in survival rates for lung cancer in the UK over the last forty years.
Despite some cancer survivors living over five times longer than forty years ago, the average survival time for people with lung cancer has only risen from 11 to 20 weeks.
The study, carried out by the UK charity Macmillan Cancer Support, calculated the average survival rate in the UK for 20 different types of cancer.
The figures show an improvement in overall average cancer survival, from one year for patients diagnosed in 1971-72 to nearly six years for those diagnosed four decades later.
Six of the cancers now have average survival times of more than 10 years. The biggest improvement is for colon cancer, with a 17-fold improvement. There is a 10-fold increase in survival rate for those diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
There was little improvement for lung, brain and pancreatic cancer over the 40 year period.