Lung has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest cancer killer of Victorian women, new data shows.
It is now the most common cancer to claim both men and women's lives with only 18 per cent of those diagnosed with lung cancer alive five years later.
The statistics, published in Cancer Council Victoria's annual report on Friday, have prompted health experts to urge smokers to get support to quit.
Director of Quit Victoria, Dr Sarah White, said the figures were the result of an increased uptake in smoking forty years ago.
A new blood test called a liquid biopsy could help identify the disease, along with seven other common cancers, well before it spreads.
