GUANGZHOU, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese patients diagnosed with lung cancer now have a higher chance of surviving the disease, thanks to improvements in precision medicine and targeted drug delivery, experts said Thursday.

Statistics from more than 1,600 medical records of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital show a 16 percent five-year survival rate for advanced lung cancer, according to Wu Yilong, lifetime director of the hospital and honorary director of the Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute.

This rate is several times higher than before, Wu added, noting doctors are able to select the treatments that are most likely to help their patients who suffer from lung cancer based on a genetic test.

"Early detection and treatment are important since the cause of lung cancer is not yet clear and it's hard to take targeted preventive measures," Wu said.

Lung cancer patients now have more choices as targeted drugs for different types of genetic mutations have been developed and gone on sale, said Zhang Haibo, head of the oncology department at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Zhang attached great importance to the development of new drugs and therapies to cope with drug resistance.

"Smoking has a lot to do with lung cancer, this hasn't changed," said Zhang Lanjun, director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center and member of the Society of Lung Cancer under the China Anti-cancer Association.

It's worth noting that clinical records have shown a growing incidence rate of lung cancer among non-smokers, most of which are women, and an increasing proportion of adenocarcinoma, he added.