Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. In the Philippines, it claimed more than 20,000 lives in 2022 alone. Most cases are diagnosed late, misdiagnosed, or left untreated due to high costs and limited access to care. Importantly, lung cancer is not only a smoker’s disease; anyone can be affected. No one should be denied care, compassion, or the chance to survive.

Like other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), lung cancer threatens individual health, reduces productivity, places a heavy burden on families, strains health systems, and reinforces cycles of poverty and inequality. Recognizing these impacts, we advocate for urgent, equitable, and evidence-based action.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges the profound global burden of lung cancer and has introduced initiatives centered on tobacco control, cancer prevention, early detection, and access to quality treatment. WHO promotes healthier lifestyles and reduced exposure to environmental risk factors, supports early detection through screening for high-risk groups, and works to expand access to effective treatment by providing technical guidance, improving availability of essential cancer medicines, and fostering international collaboration to strengthen cancer care systems.

Guided by the Universal Health Care Act and the National Integrated Cancer Control Act, and aligned with the WHO response and the ASPIRE Lung Cancer Consensus Statement, we call on the Department of Health and the Philippine Congress to lead a whole-of-government and whole-of-society response, and act decisively by adopting the commitments outlined in the Philippine Declaration for Lung Cancer, launched during the 2025 Philippine Lung Cancer Forum on November 27, 2025.

We urge our leaders to:

• improve and expand prevention through comprehensive measures including stronger tobacco and vaping control with targeted education and culturally relevant advocacy, mitigation of non-smoking risk factors such as air pollution and occupational hazards via localized and cross-sector strategies, and advancement of local research to understand environmental and genetic influences for more precise prevention and regulation.
• prioritize early detection by expanding screening guidelines to include high-risk groups (such as never-smokers with family history, women, and those with chronic inflammatory lung disease), strengthening national screening and surveillance programs with pilot projects and data collection, and investing in accessible diagnostic infrastructure, including low-dose CT scans, biomarker testing, and AI-based tools, supported by subsidies, insurance coverage, and rural community outreach to ensure equity.
• ensure equitable and sustainable access to treatment by expanding access to surgery, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and other innovative treatments through faster approvals, broader reimbursement, and sustainable financing; integrating precision medicine tools such as molecular profiling, biomarker testing, and next-generation sequencing into standard diagnostics; and strengthening care delivery through standardized clinical guidelines, stronger referral pathways, clinical trial participation, and improved health literacy.
• build partnerships and promote investment by forging multi-sectoral alliances across health, environmental, tobacco control, and NCD programs to deliver integrated strategies; empowering patient advocacy groups to co-lead policy development, education, and community support; and strengthening regional and international cooperation to exchange expertise, enhance capacity, and set measurable national targets for prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship.
• recognize stigma as a barrier to care and commit to reducing it by launching education and school-based campaigns that clarify lung cancer can affect anyone, empowering survivors and advocates to share stories that challenge cultural taboos and encourage early care-seeking in rural and older populations, and training healthcare workers to identify and address stigma while expanding survivorship programs that offer psychological and emotional support to patients, caregivers, and families.
   

We believe that every Filipino deserves a fair chance to live free from the burden of lung cancer. We call for urgent, inclusive, and evidence-based action so that no more lives are lost unnecessarily.

By signing this petition, we stand with patients, persons with lived experience, families, doctors, and advocates in affirming that LUNG CANCER MUST BE A NATIONAL PRIORITY STARTING TODAY.