Targeted therapies may knock the wind out of lung cancer, which can grow and spread aggressively.

The death rate for this cancer is close to 90 per cent. Every year, some 1,000 people here are diagnosed with lung cancer, with the majority in the advanced stage.

Dr Wong Seng Weng, a consultant medical oncologist and physician at The Cancer Centre in Paragon Medical Centre, said: ‘The alarming growth of many lung cancer is due to a ‘growth switch’ driving the rapid multiplication of lung cancer cells.’

This growth switch is known as the epidermal growth factor receptor.

Researchers have developed medication which lock onto the growth switch of cancer cells.