Aussies with time for lung cancer victims - survey

SYDNEY - Memo to Australian smokers: don't expect much sympathy from your compatriots if you develop lung cancer.

Research has found Australians are the world's least sympathetic when it comes to patients diagnosed with lung cancer.

Three in 10 Australians (29 per cent) said they would feel less sympathy for a lung cancer patient compared to people with other cancers - because of its known "link to smoking".

"Compared to other countries, Australians are the least sympathetic towards people with lung cancer," the study commissioned by the Global Lung Cancer Coalition found.

Australia just edged out Brazil (28 per cent), then Great Britain (24 per cent) in terms of reduced sympathy levels.

Argentinians were the most sympathetic, with just 10 per cent reporting feeling less compassion.

The research took in the views of around 1,000 adults across each of 16 countries and it also found a general lack of awareness - including in Australia - that lung cancer was the most common cause of cancer death.

"The truth is that lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in Australia," Associate Professor Matthews Peters, Head of Respiratory Medicine at Sydney's Concord Hospital said, "... causing more than 7,600 deaths each year which is more than breast, ovarian and prostate cancer combined."

Dr Peters also described the lack of sympathy evident in Australia as "disappointing", adding that some lung cancer cases had no link to tobacco use.

"It's important that Australians recognise that lung cancer, like all types of cancer, doesn't discriminate (and it) affects men and women, smokers and never smokers, the old and the young," he said.

More than 9,100 Australians are diagnosed with lung cancer each year and the number of new lung cancer cases for men is projected to increase by 17 per cent, from 5,384 in 2001 to 6,301 in 2011.

The research was released on Sunday to mark National Lung Cancer Tree Planting Day.

- AAP