Canadians Talk About Lung Cancer

Toronto, ON- According to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of Lung Cancer Canada, only 15% of women name lung cancer as the number one cancer killer of women, compared to the two-thirds (66%) who incorrectly say breast cancer. Furthermore, when asked which cancer they are most concerned about affecting their lives and the lives of their families, just one in five women (22%) cite lung cancer.

The majority of all respondents (68%) believe that "breast" cancer kills the most Canadian women each year. Smaller proportions point to cancers of the "lung" (15%), "ovarian" (8%), "colorectal or colon/rectum "cancer (3%), and "lymphoma or cancer of lymph nodes" (3%).

When asked what type of cancer they think kills the most Canadian men each year, the largest proportion of Canadians answer "prostate" cancer (43%), followed by "lung" (30%), "colorectal or cancer of the colon and/or rectum" (18%), "pancreas" (3%), and "lymphoma or cancer of lymph nodes" (2%).

But half of Canadians point to "lung cancer" (49%) as the top-two diseases they feel should be priorities for cancer research. And, half of Canadians (47%) disagree with the statement that "there is enough being done to find new treatments for lung cancer" (22% strongly disagree).

Flowing from this, when asked which of form of cancer they would say they are most concerned about in terms of affecting their lives and the lives of their family, the largest proportions point to "lung cancer" (26%) and "breast cancer" (24%). Canadians were asked what, to their knowledge, are the symptoms of lung cancer.

Three-quarters (74%) correctly identified:

• "Coughing/persistent cough" (40%);
• "Difficulty breathing" (24%);
• "Shortness of breath" (21%);
• "Coughing blood (haemoptysis)" (12%)
• "Chest pains" (9%);
• "Constant tiredness" (4%);
• "Weight loss" (3%);
• "phlegm/sputum (general" (2%); and
• "Pneumonia" (2%).

On average, Canadians believe that 65% of people with lung cancer are active smokers when they are diagnosed.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on the evening of October 17th to 19th, for Lung Cancer Canada. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1001 adult Canadians were interviewed via an on-line survey. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.