Lung cancer
What is lung cancer?
Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer in UK men (after prostate cancer) and the third most common type in women (after breast and bowel cancer). It is the most common cause of cancer deaths in both men and women. Lung cancer means that some of the cells of the lung have started to grow out of control and invaded and destroyed other healthy cells.
There are different types of lung cancer, depending on which types of lung cell become cancerous. The most common type is called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which accounts for around four in five cases and can start in different parts of the lung. Around one in five cases are caused by small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), which tends to grow and spread more quickly than NSCLC. In the early stages, people with lung cancer often don’t have any symptoms. This means that it is often only diagnosed after it has spread to other parts of the body, when it is much harder to treat. MRC scientists discovered in the 1950s that smoking causes lung cancer, and that stopping smoking greatly reduces a person’s chances of developing the disease.
The MRC and lung cancer research
Since 2001, the MRC and 18 other major funders of cancer research in the UK have worked in partnership to streamline cancer research. This partnership, called the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), helps maintain strategic oversight of UK cancer research, identifies gaps and opportunities and coordinates the funding activities of partner organisations. Programmes funded range from studies into the basic molecular and genetic processes of cancer to clinical trials of new therapies for specific types of the disease.
Our current lung cancer programmes include two studies being run by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit. The first, led by Dr Matthew Hatton of Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield, is comparing chemotherapy followed by intensive radiotherapy with intensive radiotherapy on its own in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer. Meanwhile, Dr Martin Muers of Leeds General Infirmary is studying whether the addition of chemotherapy to standard treatment benefits patients with cancer of the lining of the lung, which is caused by past exposure to asbestos.