Lung cancer survival rates in Northern Ireland could be doubled in the next 10 years if more action is taken, experts claimed today.

And SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who has been selected to be a Parliamentary Lung Cancer Champion, will now work with the UK Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC) to raise awareness of the disease which is still Northern Ireland’s biggest killer.

Speaking as he toured the state of the art facilities at the Belfast City Hospital’s Cancer Centre today, Mr Durkan said: “Lung cancer is the biggest killer cancer – responsible for more one in every six deaths from cancer.

“The figures are startling: someone in these islands dies from lung cancer every 15 minutes; only one person in four diagnosed with it will live for more than one year and people living in deprived areas are two and a half times more prone to getting lung cancer than those in affluent areas.

“I am delighted to help apply political pressure to ensure that resources are allocated where they are needed and that service provision is improved to meet people’s needs.

“The fact is, with relatively little action, survival rates from lung cancer could be drastically improved, as could the quality of life for sufferers.”

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, claiming the lives of 33,000 people in Britain every year and more than 800 in Northern Ireland.

Survival rates remain low and less than half of all patients with the disease are alive six months after diagnosis.

But the UKLCC believes that thousands of lives could be saved if the best standards of care were rolled out.

Speaking as she gave a tour of the cancer centre to Mr Durkan, Dr Yvonne Summers explained: “If the best standards of care already being demonstrated in some parts of the country were rolled out UK-wide, we could double one-year and five-year lung cancer survival rates. This would save many thousands of lives.”