Lung cancer became a leading cause of cancer deaths in Korea in 2000. It is an anticipated result of cigarette smoking which was very prevalent among Korean males over the past several decades. There were 10,230 new reported cases of lung cancer in
2000
and the lung cancer mortality rate was 25.0 per 100,000 persons in 2001. Despite better supportive care and improved surgical techniques and development of more effective chemotherapeutic agents, the outcome of lung cancer patients in Korea
remains
disappointingly poor with a 5-year relative survival rate of only 11.4%. One of the major reasons for this poor outcome is that only approximately one-fifth of lung cancer are diagnosed at early resectable stages and benefited from curative
surgery
while the majority of patients have their tumors found at more advanced stages. Unfortunately, there is no established means for early lung cancer detection and screening program. Smoking cessation is the one and only known effective means of
lung
cancer prevention. In order to curtail the ever-rising incidence and mortality of lung cancer in Korea, it is mandatory to launch an even more strong anti-smoking campaign and utilize all means to discourage teen-ager smoking. In addition, there
should
be more support from both industry and the government for the development of more effective chemotherapy and new molecular-targeted therapeutic agents and establishment of infrastructures for clinical trials. A new effective treatment for lung
cancer
can be established only through the scrutiny of well-designed clinical trials.
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