While lung cancer shares the stage with colon cancer as the common form of cancer in men, lung cancer has a higher mortality rate because it is often detected too late, says Dr Anand Sachithanandan, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

“In Malaysia, at initial presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer, only 3% of people are in stage one and 7% in stage two. The remaining 90% of lung cancer patients were diagnosed in either stages three or four.”