Chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer research: a perspective from the European Union.

The mounting burden of chronic respiratory diseases Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are chronic diseases of the airways and other structures of the lungs. Major CRDs are asthma and respiratory allergies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), occupational lung diseases, sleep apnoea syndrome and pulmonary hypertension. Globally, they affect 1 billion people and account for 7% of all deaths worldwide (4.2 million deaths) [1]. Lung cancer adds to this number another 1.4 million deaths annually (2.4%) [2]. Of the communicable lung diseases, tuberculosis is by far the most important. In 2012, 1.3 million people were killed by tuberculosis and 8.6 million new cases required treatment [3].