Lung Cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States!
Lung Cancer causes 30% of all cancer deaths!
Yet people are still under educated about the causes, the types and the staggering statistics. The survival rate of greater than 5 years for breast cancer has increased to 89%, for prostate cancer it's at 99%, for lung cancer it's less than 16%. And for small cell lung cancer it's less than 5 %. Every 2 minutes someone is diagnosed with lung cancer.
It is estimated that 221,130 men and women (115,060 men and 106,070 women) will be diagnosed with and 156,940 men and women will die of cancer of the lung and bronchus in 2011.
Click here for the 2011 Cancer Fact and Figures from the National Cancer Institute.
*60% of people newly diagnosed with lung cancer either quit smoking many years ago or never smoked
* Lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, prostate, colorectal, liver, kidney, melanoma and pancreatic cancers combined .
*Myth : After you stop smoking, your lungs go back to normal in 10 years.
*Truth : The lungs never go back to normal. Most former smokers remain at elevated risk.
Current smokers : 35-40% of new lung cancer cases
Former smokers : 50% of new lung cancer cases
Never smoked : 10-15% of new lung cancer cases
* 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.
*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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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
* Approximately 50% of the people diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked or are former smokers.
Sources:
Cancer Facts & Figures 2007, American Cancer Society, Inc., p.4, pp.13-16.
Fact Book (2007), National Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
www.lungcanceralliance.org
(http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/NCI/research-funding).
Kurie JM, Spitz MR, Hong WK: Lung cancer chemoprevention: Targeting former rather than current smokers. Cancer Prevent Intl 2:55-64, 1995.
Pass, Harvey I. et al. Lung Cancer Principles and Practice, 2nd edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2000.
Cancer Research Funding National Cancer Institute (NCI) : In 1971, President Nixon and Congress declared a War on Cancer.
At that time, lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death—it still is today. Funding for NCI grew
from $400 million per year in 1971 to $4.78 billion in 2005. Most major cancers have benefited with
increasingly high five-year survival rates.
The underfunding of lung cancer research has kept its survival rate
almost as low as it was in 1971.
Department of Defense (DOD): In 1992, Congress started funding cancer research programs at DOD.
From 1992 to 2004, DOD funding for breast cancer research totaled $1.66 billion. An additional $150
million has been appropriated for 2005. Prostate cancer research totaled $565 million from 1997-2004.
Another $85 million has been appropriated for 2005.
Lung cancer research received only $33 million from 1999 to 2004,
with just $2.1 million appropriated for 2005.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC): Congress also earmarks funding within CDC for
specific cancers. The 2005 budget includes $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 includes $0 for lung cancer research. An estimated 1 million people worldwide die from lung cancer annually. It is the most common diagnosed cancer but with marked regional variation. Over 3 million people have lung cancer, the majority residing in developed countries.
April 2005 American Cancer Society |
