Lung disease claims 200 lives in city each year
MORE than 200 people die from lung cancer in Bristol every year, it has been revealed.
About 2,321 people in the city are affected by the disease every year but if it is caught early enough about 80 per cent of those diagnosed are still alive five years later.
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Sarah Saunders, Nurse Janet Walton and Alex Little on the Be Clear on Cancer roadshow in The Galleries Picture: Michael Lloyd BRML20120627B-001
A campaign has been launched to encourage people to be aware of the symptoms of lung cancer.
Nurses visited The Galleries shopping centre in Broadmead to advise people of the signs they should be looking out for.
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A persistent cough that lasts for three weeks or more is one of the main symptoms of the disease and people are being advised that if they go to their GP early it could save their life.
Lung cancer is the form of the disease that kills most people in England, yet the symptoms are less well known than those for breast or testicular cancer.
Most cases of lung cancer are in people over the age of 55, with about 210 deaths a year.
Elizabeth Lee, a consultant in public health for the Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services Network, said: "What we are trying to do is save more lives by getting people to their doctors earlier. If lung cancer is caught at an earlier stage 80 per cent are still alive five years after diagnosis rather than seven per cent."
She said a persistent cough was the main symptom. Coughing up blood was an important sign of lung cancer too, as well as breathlessness, feeling more tired than usual, losing weight for no obvious reason and long lasting chest or shoulder aches or pains.
"Quite often it is not just one symptom and if you talk to people who have had lung cancer they say they should have known ages ago," Ms Lee said.
Despite lung cancer being associated with smoking one in eight people diagnosed with it have never smoked.
Comments
by suffolkpunch
Friday, June 29 2012, 2:21PM
“It has been announced that 'The Lungs Absorb Half Of Inhaled Diesel Soot'. The longer you live the higher the build up.”
by geeveeh
Friday, June 29 2012, 6:26AM
“THIS STORY BEARS OUT WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS SAID. SEVERAL YEARS AGO I ATTENDED A POST MORTEM AND THE PATHOLOGIST KNEW LITTLE OF THE CORPSE. WHEN HE CUT THE LUNGS OPEN, THEY WERE VERY BLACK. HIS CONCLUSION TO THIS WAS THAT THE MAN EITHER SMOKED 60 CIGARETTES A DAY....OR...LIVED IN A CITY. MAYBE WE NEED ANOTHER WAR AND THEN THE GOVERNMENT WILL GO BACK TO SAYING HOW GOOD SMOKING IS FOR YOU FOR RELAXATION ETC.(I would in the past smoke one cigar a week on a Saturday morning, in the pub, picking out a few horses to watch in the afternoon. Since the heavy handed tactics of the Government which caused this to cease I smoke a cigar a day just as my way of putting two fingers up to those that "know best" !”