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As October draws to a close and the pink ribbons are packed away until next year, it's time to draw attention to the most lethal cancer in America for both men and women. The disease which holds this dubious honor is lung cancer, and November is National Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
Melissa Marr of The Healing Project offers these harrowing statistics on lung cancer:
Approximately 50% of the people diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked or are former smokers.
Lung cancer accounts for approximately 29% of all cancer deaths.
Lung cancer kills more Americans each year than breast, prostate, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers combined.
Lung cancer kills more than three times as many men each year than prostate cancer.
Lung cancer kills more women each year than breast, ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancers combined.
In 2007, an estimated 213,380 people will be newly diagnosed with lung cancer, and an estimated 160,390 people will die of lung cancer. An estimated 89,510 of these deaths will be men and an estimated 70,880 will be women.
Lung cancer kills 84% of newly diagnosed patients within five years. The survival rate is 49% for cases detected when the disease is localized to the lung, but only 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed that early.
More than 7% of American men and women will be diagnosed with lung cancer in the course of their lifetime.
The 5-year survival rate for…
Breast cancer has reached 88%
Prostate cancer – 99%
Colon cancer – 63%
Lung Cancer – 15%!In 2007, approximately $1,633 will be spent on research per lung cancer death, compared with:
$13,471 per breast cancer death
$11,298 per prostate cancer death
$4,774 per colorectal cancer death
Lung Cancer has the lowest survival rate of any other cancer but continues to receive the least amount of funding per death!
A recent addition to the BlogHer Health and Wellness blogroll, Dawn writes about her mother's recurring lung cancer on her blog, "Stronger Than Cancer:"
I was in Steamboat Springs, miles away from them. I was grocery shopping. But I thought it was probably just bronchitis or pneumonia. I returned home to unload groceries and my life forever changed. My mom called. She told me she had bad news. And from the tone of her voice I knew it was something horrible. Her voice cracked and she told me "It's cancer".
I fell to the floor crying. I cried so much those first few hours and even more in the days to follow. I cursed my mom for smoking. I cursed myself for not being there for her. I cursed the doctors because surely they had made an error. I cursed all the people that smoked and didn't have lung cancer because it wasn't fair that my mom did. I cursed the tobacco industry. And I cursed God for doing this to her. To us. My mom wasn't even 50 yet. My mom is the most vibrant person I know. Strong, hard-working and a great person are always used to describe her. To be so full of life and to possible lose her life to something so horrible seemed so unfair to me. All of a sudden, my mom was mortal. She wasn't the immortal mom I expected her to be. I realized that at some point in time, she would no longer be here with me. Or with her grandchildren. That thought made me cry fresh tears. And that point I did thank God for all that he had given us, for giving me such a great mom and I asked him to help her fight this horrible disease and to give me strength to get through this.
And finally, Valerie of Dig Your Toes In reminds us that lung cancer is not just a smoker's disease:
It’s easy to think of Lung Cancer just going along with a nasty habit that nasty people have. That provides a nice comfortable distance. “I am not a nasty person with a nasty habit. I am not at risk.” It’s a smoke screen (no pun intended) of safety or a faulty way of trying to make sense of suffering that doesn’t make sense.
That is, it’s easy to think that until you look into the faces of people–non-smokers and smokers alike–who have it, or have watched a loved one suffer with it.
See–it’s so much more than a ’smokers’ disease. It is a terrible disease that affects beautiful amazing people from all walks of life. Real people. Real families.
More information on lung cancer statistics, research, and charities can be
