This isn’t just data! The numbers have faces. Behind every statistic is someone sitting in a hospital waiting room trying to hold it together. I have been there a few times over the last four years.

This year’s report from Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE) says out loud what patients and caregivers have experienced for years: mental health care isn’t optional when you have lung cancer.

What the report found — and what we already knew

• More than half of people with lung cancer never got any offer of mental health support. Imagine being told you have cancer — and then left to face the fear, the grief, and the endless ‘what-ifs’ on your own.
• Anxiety, depression, and emotional exhaustion are not signs of weakness — they’re what happens when your world is turned upside down and the system doesn’t catch you.
• The way information is shared often makes it worse. Too many patients get cold, technical words instead of compassion and clarity.
• There’s a massive gap between what we need and what’s offered. We don’t ‘just’ need pills and scans — we need people who ‘see’ us.
• Most patients want to live well, not just longer. Quality of life matters and mental health is part of that equation.

Every patient deserves built-in psychological care — from diagnosis to treatment to whatever comes after.

What we, patients, can do

• Speak up. When you’re offered care that ignores your mind and heart, say something.
• Share your story. Every time one of us speaks, the silence around mental health cracks a little more.
• Support each other. Sometimes the best therapy is another patient who gets it.
• Push for change. Ask your hospital, your doctor, your politicians — where’s the mental health plan for people with cancer?

The LuCE report is more than research — it’s a reminder that our strength isn’t just in surviving treatment, but in ensuring we receive care that treats us as whole people. No one has to go through lung cancer without the mental and emotional support they deserve.