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A campaign that is urging people with a three week old cough to get checked has resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of lung cancers detected, according to a new analysis.

The analysis of the results that were announced by Cancer Research UK.

Experts believed that this campaign will offer patients their best chance of life-saving surgery as well as longer survival from the biggest cancer killer.

The campaign named Be Clear On Cancer Campaign has led to around 700 extra patients that are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Majority of the diagnosed were detected at an early stage.

The Public Health England campaign is supported by Cancer Research UK, NHS England and the Department of Health. The campaign ran throughout England from May-June 2012.

Around 700 more people were diagnosed with lung cancer in comparison with the same months in previous year. A significant decrease was recorded in the proportion of people that were diagnosed at a late stage.

“We are starting to see a dramatic change in potentially curative treatments for lung cancer. As a result of the Be Clear on Cancer campaign we’ve seen as much progress, particularly in the proportion of patients having an operation for their lung cancer, in those three months as in the previous two years,” said Dr Mick Peake, lung cancer expert and consultant in respiratory medicine at the University of Leicester in a press release.

“Until recently a lung cancer patient in Sweden was nearly 70 per cent more likely to survive their disease for at least five years than if they lived in England. So I am therefore delighted that this new set of figures shows that the Be Clear on Cancer campaign has helped speed up our progress in lung cancer survival with hundreds of patients receiving potential life saving surgery as a result of this campaign,” said Sean Duffy, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England in the press release.