Lung Cancer Awareness Lacking Among Latin Americans, Says Survey

A recent survey released by Novartis pharmaceutical laboratory revealed that there is a huge lack of knowledge about lung cancer in Latin America. This lack of awareness will put people in Latin countries more at risk to lung cancer, which is the main cause of death from carcinoma in the world.

According to Fox News Latino, a survey form Novartis was conducted using around 3,000 samples from countries like Mexico, Columbia and Argentina. Apart from the lack of awareness, it was also found that there is a great stigma attached to lung cancer in these Latin countries.

Eight out of ten of the respondents said that they either know nothing, or very little about the killer disease. Lung cancer kills more people than cancers from prostate, breast and colon combined.

More than 90 percent of the participants believe that smoking is the main risk for lung cancer. However, researchers found that lung cancer can also affect non-smokers including young people.

The survey conducted in Latin America was compared to global results. It showed that Latin Americans seem to condemn people with lung cancer more and give them lower level of support and understanding.

However, it looks like the awareness of the public about lung cancer is improving in Brazil. In an article by Latin America Herald Tribune, the smokers in Brazil declined by 30.7 percent. A survey was conducted last year by the Health Ministry and was presented by Minister Arthur Chioro.

"Twenty years ago more than one third of Brazil's adult population smoked," Chioro said. "The effort to control smoking is an effort for Brazilians' quality of life."

The survey also shows that 21.2 percent of Brazilians call themselves ex-smokers. Chioro said that their anti-smoking campaign is motivated to reduce the damage done by tobacco. Their Health Ministry revealed that there are around 200,000 cases of smoking-related deaths in Brazil each year. 

Meanwhile, a new international clinical test found that immunological therapy is more effective than chemotherapy. This is for the treatment of non-microcytic and non-squamous-cell lung cancer which is the most common variety. This kind of treatment will increase patients' survival by months.

This test considered 582 sample patients. The results were compared to those obtained from standard chemotherapy. The suggested immunological therapy was able to improve patient survival rate from an average of 9.4 months to 12.2 months.

The breakthrough result was presented at the 51st annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in Chicago.