Stigma around lung disease and cancer must go

The stigma for people diagnosed and living with lung disease or cancer is a heavy physical and emotional burden. It can leave people feeling isolated, ashamed and — worse still — be the reason they hesitate or don’t seek much-needed help.

Data from Lung Foundation Australia’s Lived Experience Survey showed the debilitating effect stigma has on patients. The survey, with responses from 1034 people living with a lung condition and 149 carers, alarmingly showed the levels of stigma had increased since 2020, including the stigma patients felt from health practitioners.

It simply isn’t good enough. The stigma around lung disease and cancer must go.

Alongside Lung Foundation Australia, health professionals must play an active role in helping to remove stigma and create more supportive environments for those living with lung disease.

Language matters

Research presented at the Australian Lung Cancer Conference 2025 by Dr Shiho Rose and her team showed that stigmatising language — including blame-focused terms and moralising narratives — remains prevalent in media coverage. But we know this extends into treatment rooms, doctors’ surgeries and everyday interactions when a patient is diagnosed with a lung disease.

The language we use when talking about lung disease matters.

Better communication, education and advocacy are essential to make sure stigma is removed and greater empathy is given to patients. Lung disease is complex. Research is showing us that the first 1000 days of someone’s life can set the course of their lung health for life. Exposure to environmental conditions in early life can increase chronic diseases risk, regardless of whether a person smokes or not.

Likewise, we need to make a dedicated effort to highlight the advancements in treatment and research that are contributing to the growing number of people who live longer and better. We should spend more time focusing on the positive and less time dwelling on the negative.

Cultivating empathy and understanding

We need to acknowledge the experiences of patients without judgment. Too often people diagnosed with or living with lung disease are immediately blamed for causing it themselves, rather than offered concern. It isn’t good enough.

Empower your patients in their care decisions and encourage them to have agency in their health. Understand that charities like Lung Foundation Australia are your allies in supporting your patients and able to offer them connection, support and community.

Connection and community

Connection and community are paramount when living with a lung disease. Patients need access to health professionals who specialise in lung disease and can offer genuine and practical advice on how to cope with the emotional challenges of their diagnosis.

Support from specialist lung cancer nurses, for example, has proven impacts, including:

• reduced avoidable ED presentation

• improved cancer service alignment with optimal lung cancer care

• improved value and quality of patient-centred lung cancer care

• improved access to lung cancer treatment and timeliness of treatment

• increased receipt of anticancer therapy

• strengthened patient capacity to self-manage

• improved outcomes for patients and carers affected by lung cancer (cancer outcomes, quality of life and wellbeing).
   

Why is it not yet standard practice that patients with lung disease or cancer are given the same opportunities for support, quality of life and survival that people with other cancers have?

Stigma breeds inequality

The stigma around lung disease and cancer has held back research investment and community empathy for too long, resulting in greater inequality in treatment, progress and care.

Regardless of how a patient’s diagnosis came about, they still deserve the gold standard of care that patients with breast, bowel or prostate cancer, or those in city locations, receive. Cancer is cancer, and all Australians deserve to have access to a full range of treatments.

Lung Foundation Australia believes the soon-to-launched national lung health screening program will transform the way lung health and disease are viewed in the community. We want the service to normalise having your two-yearly lung screening just as much as people know to schedule their mammogram after turning 40 or making sure you “slip, slop, slap, seek and slide” before heading outdoors.

We can’t advocate on behalf of the lung cancer community alone. We need the help of health practitioners nationally. Be the voice that advocates for policy changes that promote lung health screening and research, share knowledge and resources to ensure that patients are supported pre- and post-diagnosis, and speak out against stigma you see in action.

Together we can make the first question someone is asked after sharing their lung cancer diagnosis, “I’m sorry you’ve been given a cancer diagnosis. Is there anything I can do to help?” rather than “Oh, do you smoke?”

Let’s work together to break down the walls of stigma and empower individuals to live better, regardless of their diagnosis.

In July 2025, the National Lung Cancer Screening Program will launch. Learn more at www.lungfoundation.com.au/advocacy/national-lung-cancer-screening-program.

Mark Brooke, Chief Executive Officer of Lung Foundation Australia

Top image credit: iStock.com/HuiLiu