Meaning & use
lung cancer
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablemedical
a serious disease in which harmful cells grow out of control inside the lungs
Grammar: Used without 'a' or 'an': 'He has lung cancer.' Not 'a lung cancer' unless referring to a type: 'a rare lung cancer'.
Patterns
- have lung cancer
- develop lung cancer
- lung cancer treatment
Smoking greatly increases the risk of lung cancer.
She was diagnosed with lung cancer last year.
New treatments for lung cancer are being tested.
nouncountablemedical
a particular type or case of this disease, especially when discussed medically
Grammar: Can be countable when talking about types or individual cases: 'a lung cancer that spreads quickly'.
Patterns
- a type of lung cancer
- a rare lung cancer
The doctor explained that this is an aggressive lung cancer.
Researchers are studying a lung cancer that is common in non-smokers.
Common combinations
- lung cancer risk
- Quitting smoking lowers your lung cancer risk.
- lung cancer screening
- Lung cancer screening can find the disease early.
- advanced lung cancer
- Advanced lung cancer is harder to treat.
- die of lung cancer
- He died of lung cancer at the age of sixty.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pulmonary carcinoma
- A technical medical term for lung cancer, used mainly in medical writing, not in everyday speech.
Word family
- lung noun
- Either of the two organs in the chest used for breathing.
- cancer noun
- A serious disease in which harmful cells grow uncontrollably.
- cancerous adjective
- Describing a growth or tumor that is made of cancer cells.
Commonly confused: lung cancer or lung disease?
lung cancer vs lung disease
Lung disease is a broader term for any condition affecting the lungs, such as asthma or pneumonia; lung cancer is one specific type.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'lung cancer' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Lung cancer' is usually uncountable, so 'He was diagnosed with lung cancer' is correct. 'A lung cancer' is only used for a specific type, and 'lung cancer are' is wrong because the noun is singular in form and uncountable here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lung cancer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.