Lung cancer

• 88% caused by smoking
• 1950 - link between smoking and lung cancer
• hard to treat as once diagnosed its already advanced -

  • patients thought it was a different disease
  • no national screening programme - test aren't accurate
• diagnosis - old way


  X-rays -> images were unclear - led to mistakes - miss the tumour or wrongly identify something else as a tumour
• diagnosis - new methods


  CT scans - see soft tissue - more accurate then X-rays

  if cancer is present, the doctor will;

  1. if cancer is not advanced - small radioactive injection to identify cancerous cells
  2. bronchoscopy - passes camera through lungs and collect cells for testing
• treatments

  • remove tumour
  • transplant (do they deserve it if its their fault?)
  • radiotherapy - waves of radiation
  • chemotherapy - inject patients with drugs
• preventions - 


  despite the link to smoking, the British government was slow to respond;

  • 1985 - smoking related deaths cost the NHS £165 million but the government earned £4 million from tax
  • the tobacco industry employed many people - cutting smoking would reduce jobs
  • was it the governments job to limit freedoms?

  however as time passed, the number of deaths increased, the government had to intervene
• government intervening - force

  • 2007 - smoking banned in public places
  • 2015 - ban extended to cars carrying children
  • 2007 - legal age of buying tobacco raised from 16 to 18
  • increase in taxation on tobacco products - raises the prices
• government intervening - persuade

  • 1965 - TV adverts = banned
  • 2005 - all advertising banned
  • 2012 - all cigarette products must be removed from displays in shops
  • produced advertising campaigns to discourage smoking by pregnant women and children
  • Stoptober
• cholera vs lung cancer


  cholera -

  slow response initially -> John Snow showed findings in 1855, sewers took 20 years

  more direct response later - Public Health Act of 1875

  lung cancer -

  slow response initially -> first link to smoking in 1950

  gov intervened when deaths got too high

  more direct response later - gov forced/persuaded change