Dr Jesme Baird: A range of possible symptoms

In Scotland, 4,500 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed every year.

The foundation said that patients in Europe were 70% more likely to survive the disease in its early years than their counterparts in Britain.

The mortality rate has largely been attributed to late diagnosis of lung cancer by doctors and poor access to treatment and services.

But Dr Jesme Baird, of the foundation, conceded that there were clearly difficulties in diagnosing lung cancer given the variety of possible symptoms.

She said: "The difficulty with lung cancer is that there is a whole myriad, a whole host of symptoms, which people can complain of.

Waiting times

"Things like a cough which has changed, coughing up blood, increasing shortness of breath, chest pain, unexplained weight loss."

"So really what we are trying to get across to patients and to the general public is, if you are a smoker or an ex-smoker and there is a difference in symptoms - in some way you're not feeling well - get to your GP and get a chest X-ray."

The British Medical Foundation said the main problem has not been in diagnosis by doctors but with waiting times for treatment.