MANY people believe smokers who develop lung cancer have brought the disease on themselves, according to a new survey.

This was the reaction of seven out of 10 people when they were interviewed in a recent MORI poll for the Cancer Research Campaign.

However, eight out of 10 say lung cancer sufferers should still have as much right to a hospital bed as other cancer patients.

The charity has dubbed it the 'invisible cancer' and feels this is why is has such a low profile and survival rate. Out of the 38,000 Britons who develop the disease each year, 33,400 die of it annually. Statistics also show that 90 per cent of lung cancers are smoking related.

"We want people to start demanding better treatment and better resources, particularly as the majority of people surveyed did not want lung cancer patients to be discriminated against," said the campaign's head of clinical programmes Dr Richard Sullivan.

And he added: "There has been a wall of silence surrounding lung cancer for far too long. We need to break this down."