Speaking during Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Southern Health's head of medical oncology, Peter Briggs, said he was more likely to feel empathetic when he saw someone lighting up.

"I recognise that most people I see smoking would prefer not to smoke. It is extremely difficult to quit smoking because it is a physical addiction."

Dr Briggs said smokers who contracted lung cancer were unfairly blamed for their illness.

"So many people in our community have smoked.

It was culturally reinforced, encouraged and, in fact, promoted vigorously by tobacco manufacturers, so it's not fair to blame individuals for the fact that they are smoking.

"I would hope when it comes to treatment, there is no residual element of blame involved."

During the past decade, there was a higher incidence of lung cancer patients who had never smoked, he said.

"There is a new understanding at a biological level about the fact that there are different types of lung cancer. For people who have never smoked, the outcome is generally a lot better."

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in Australian men, the third most common for women and the most common cause of cancer death.

But Dr Briggs said there had been exciting treatment developments, including two tablet medications, Tarceva and Iressa, made more widely available in the past few months.

"They are exciting new treatments based on understanding the biological make-up of cancer cells. They can inhibit the cancer growth, without causing the side effects of chemotherapy."

Lung cancer can be cured if discovered early and operated on successfully, but that shouldn't discourage the anti-smoking message, he said.

"Trying to improve health is a powerful motivator for some people. Sometimes it takes being confronted with a serious illness to motivate people to quit smoking."