Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the UK resulting in more than 33,500 deaths in 2008, 4,000 more than for bowel and breast cancer combined. Five-year survival figures are poor but have recently improved from around 5% to 7.5% in men and 8.5% in women.There is evidence of marked variation in the standard of care in England.  It has recently been shown that if patients are first referred to a thoracic surgical centre, rather than a hospital that does not have thoracic surgeons on site, they are 51% more likely to have a resection. There are similar findings for other active treatments. By reducing this variation there is scope for marked improvement in outcomes, possibly to levels seen in other countries such as Australia, Canada, Sweden and Norway where five-year survival rates are approximately double. Thus there is a need to encourage lung cancer teams to select patients correctly so that the best treatment can be offered. Improving diagnosis, staging and fitness assessment was a major focus in the recently updated NICE guideline on diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, published in April 2011.  [With external links to current evidence and summaries]