Lung cancer will be the cause of more deaths in women than any other cancer within three years, the NSW government says.
Assistant Health Minister Verity Firth says new figures from the government's Cancer Institute are alarming.
"The number of NSW women dying from lung cancer is set to hit 939 by 2010 - an increase of 12 per cent on the 2004 figure of 837 and overtaking breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in NSW women," Ms Firth said in a statement.
Breast cancer was declining, she said, although it was still expected to kill 896 women in NSW in 2010.
"These projections mean that by 2010 lung cancer will be the leading cause of cancer death in both NSW men and women, with only 13 per cent of males and 15 per cent of females expected to be alive five years after diagnosis," Ms Firth said.
"To put it bluntly, lung cancer kills more of its victims than almost any other cancer."
It had been an established medical fact for more than 50 years that the single biggest preventable cause of lung cancer was the smoking of cigarettes, she said.
About eight out of 10 new cases were caused by smoking.
"So in other words, lung cancer is largely preventable," Ms Firth said.
"Accordingly, the NSW government has almost tripled to $12 million funding for mass media quit smoking campaigns.
"Our use of graphic and confronting images has already contributed to a dramatic reduction in the number of smokers in NSW.
"In fact, the NSW smoking rate is one of the lowest in the developed world."
In the past three years, an estimated 150,000 smokers had kicked the habit, saving the state's economy between $1 billion and $2.5 billion over the next two decades, the minister said.
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