providing medical writing support by preparing the manuscript outline, developing the first draft and collating and incorporating author comments to the final manuscript. Medical writing support was funded by AstraZeneca, Sydney, Australia in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (http://www.ismpp.org/gpp3).Insight and stimulus for this manuscript was identified during metropolitan roundtable meetings led by AstraZeneca in Australia. Australian medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, respiratory physicians and cancer care nurses participated in these meetings including the authors of this manuscript.