Lung cancer: No. 1 killer cancer
Lung cancer remains the number one killer among cancers. The Lung Cancer Alliance has given America a report card to America for its progress on tackling the disease. The result: If lung cancer were a student, it would be a dropout.
– Lung cancer killed 161,000 lives people last year, three times more men than prostate cancer, twice as many women as breast cancer.
– More people will die from lung cancer this year than breast, prostate, colon, leukemia, ovarian and cervical cancer—combined.
– About 60 percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer never smoked. While that’s puzzling to the medical community, this brings new suspicion on second-hand smoke, naturally occurring radon, asbestos, sensitivity to air pollution.
– From 1996 to 2003, only 16 percent of lung cancer was diagnosed at an early, most treatable stage. That’s to be expected, lung cancer doesn’t have consistent symptoms until it’s at stage 4, when it’s nearly impossible to stop. Still, there’s no means of early detection or screening for lung cancer.
By contrast, 61 percent of breast cancers, 39 percent of colon cancers and 91 percent of prostate cancers were diagnosed at early stage. These cancers have screening tests.
The Lung Cancer Alliance sees the big problem in these and more issues is the lack of funding for research. Funding supports research and successful research — breast, prostate and colon cancer for example — turns around the death rates of cancers by coming up with screening and therapies.
The lack of funding is due to the stigma that anyone with lung cancer did it to themselves. The numbers who that’s simply not true.
The Alliance is hoping people will put pressure on their representatives to set aside money for research into lung cancer.
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I've written exclusively about health since the inception of the Health & Fitness section. I'm an off-road biker, altitude hiker and was into adventure sports until a fall down a Colorado mountain turned my lower back into abstract art. But I'm coming back. 
November is lung cancer awareness month and I was so happy to see something about lung cancer writen here in the St Louis area. It is so painful to have lung cancer at any time but especially hard this month when one would think that some effort would be made to help people understand the terrible statistics and stigma of lung cancer. I have probally writen 50 letters to newspapers and TV stations with no response at all. It is quite remarkable to me that so many people can die each year with so little notice and no public outrage. Of course another part of the problem is that almost everyone dies, so there are no suvivors to speak out. I am co-founder of a grass roots organization formed to provide support and information for persons diagnosed with lung cancer. When I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at age 51, I did not even know that women my age could get lung cancer. I was totally unprepared for the prognosis of death within the first year and no hope of any cure. Since my diagnosis I have spoken with many victims, who like me are totally shocked, not only with a lung cancer diagnosis, but then are made to feel they are to blame for thier disease. I am hoping to change the expeirence of a lung cancer diagnosis so that patients are treated with dignity and respect and have the same emotional support and opportunity to participate in treatment decisions as all other cancer patients. Thanks so much for your article.
Sincerely,
Myrtle Chideste
Co-Founder
St Louis Lung Cancer Advocacy
That’s terrible that people think lung cancer is always self induced. My grandmother died from lung cancer and she was a smoker, but she didn’t market the cigarettes or sell them. i smoke myself and don’t want to die from it, but according to this article 60% of people who get lung cancer did not smoke. Maybe it’s the cars, trucks, plants, chemicals, pollution. Let’s not blame smokers for everything. After all I can’t even smoke outside most places any more.