This is not a fun entry here, unfortunately. My mother was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer last August. She has never smoked, but grew up in a household of smokers. While I hate having to throw up all these numbers (most from http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/facing/facts.html The Lung Cancer Alliance), I feel like I need to. When I've tried to tell people what I've learned about lung cancer, the response for the most part has been "that can't be true" as if I must have pulled my facts from a chain email or wackycancerfacts4U.com.
The sad fact is that lung cancer research is embarrassingly underfunded when you consider it is the leading cause of cancer death in the US (a chicken/egg situation perhaps). Unlike breast or prostate cancers, there is currently no early screening recommended for lung cancer. There is a stigma towards lung cancer patients, that if you smoke you've chosen the disease and therefore don't deserve research dollars. I hope that lung cancer victims will someday receive the same sympathy and compassion given to HIV/AIDS patients and other "lifestyle choices" diseases. I'm not sure what it will take for this to happen. No one deserves cancer of any kind. I am not trying to discount other cancers, but to shed a little light on a disease that is clearly not taken seriously enough.
(most of these were pulled directly from the Lung Cancer Allicance website)
Lung cancer will kill more people this year than: breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, and melanoma...combined
Lung cancer will kill nearly twice as many women as breast cancer this year.
Over 50% of new lung cancer cases will be diagnosed at a very late stage—Stage IIIb or IV— and only 5% of them will live for 5 years. In 2007, 61% of breast cancers, 39% of colon cancers and 91% of prostate cancers were diagnosed at an early, treatable stage.
New lung cancers cases are made up of:
Current smokers: 35-40%
Smokers who quit decades ago: 50%
Never smoked: 10-15%
Over 60 percent of those diagnosed with lung cancer either quit smoking decades ago or never smoked at all. 20 percent of women diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.
The underfunding of lung cancer research has kept its survival rate almost as low as it was in 1971 (12%). The five year survival rate for breast cancer now stands at 88 percent, prostate cancer 99 percent and colon cancer 65 percent while lung cancer remains at 15 percent.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC): Congress earmarks funding within CDC for specific cancers. The 2005 budget included $204 million for breast and cervical cancer research, $14 million for prostate cancer research, and $14.6 million for colon cancer research. The 2005 budget included $0 for lung cancer research.
http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/facing/facts.html
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