The UK Lung Cancer Coalition, during this Lung Cancer Awareness Month, has released its goals for improving lung cancer survival rates in that part of Europe, where it currently stands at an absolutely pathetic 8.4% over five years. This is certainly commendable, and they have pledged to double the one-year survival rate by 2010 and the five-year survival rate by 2015. Lofty goals, but a huge breakthrough should they achieve them. Still, with those increases, they’d only be barely on par with US survival rates. Now if only we could see something similar in the US…

It’s not entirely clear why lung cancer survival rates are so different in different parts of the world, or even from country to country—it may be genetics, or it may be that standards of treatment are different, or it may be that differences in lifestyles confer more aggressive forms of cancers in certain parts of the world. It may be a combination of these. The US stands at around 15% for five-year survival rate, a figure that has not appreciably increased since the 1970s, while Malta, according to the UKLCC, boasts a five-year survival rate of 4.8%.

If you live in Malta and you smoke, you might want to stop now. Also, if you live anywhere and you smoke, you might want to stop now, unless of course you’re feeling really lucky.