In the UK, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in men (after prostate cancer) and the third most common in women (after breast cancer and bowel cancer). Lung cancer is also the leading cause of death from cancer in the UK.

More than 39,000 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK and more than 35,000 people die from it.^[22]More British people die from lung cancer each year than from breast and bowel cancers combined.^[23]

The good news is that lung cancer is becoming less common in men, since a peak in the early 1980s.^[23] And figures in women are levelling off, though they aren't going down yet.^[23] This is probably because fewer people are smoking.

However, a study of people born since 1950 shows just how quickly such trends may change.^[24] Researchers found that among people in their 20s and 30s, there were small increases in the number dying from lung cancer. They suggest this may be due to the rise in teenage smoking.

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