• Clinical epidemiology
• lung cancer
• thoracic surgery

We read with interest the article by Hubbard et al who raise late diagnosis as a key determinant of poor lung cancer survival in the UK.1 We would like to highlight discrepancies in rates of radical treatment use as another contributory factor. Figures from the Eurocare 4 study2 suggest 5-year survival figures in Northern Ireland have been higher than in England and Wales or Scotland (table 1).2–4 This could reflect differences in patient demographics, disease, method of recording or treatment modality. …