TY - JOUR T1 - Highlights in lung cancer JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 617 LP - 618 DO - 10.1183/09031936.01.00238801 VL - 18 IS - 4 AU - C. Brambilla AU - S. Spiro Y1 - 2001/10/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/18/4/617.abstract N2 - Lung cancer is a leading cause of death and a major public health problem throughout the world. Although chest physicians supervise the care of most of these patients in many European countries, the number of papers on lung cancer published in the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) does not reflect the magnitude or the importance of the disease. Thoracic oncologists, both clinicians and biologists, prefer to send what they consider their best work to more cancer-orientated journals even if the impact factor is no higher. If we consider that the respiratory physician has to divide his time and expertise between infectious, inflammatory, thromboembolic and environmental respiratory diseases, but actually devote most of his time to asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, it seems pretty obvious that he may not find the information he needs on lung cancer in the ERJ. This new series on lung cancer is an opportunity to provide an overview on controversial or “hot” topics in the field, and to raise the respiratory physician's curiosity in an area he should know more … ER -