Lung cancer affects half as many women as breast cancer does each year but kills twice as many women. And its five year survival rate is 16% or for Stage IV, 4%. To put it another way:
"An indiscriminate killer, lung cancer takes more lives annually than
breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancers combined. The disease has
not generally received the public attention or research dollars in
proportion to its devastating lethality. Lung cancer receives just
$1,442 in federal research funds per death, compared with $26,398 for
breast cancer and $13,419 for prostate cancer according to an NIH study. Factor in private donations, and the funding gap becomes even more staggering."
Lung cancer is not the only one that is indiscriminate. All cancers are indiscriminate but its time that other cancers get the notice that go to the headline cancers - breast, pancreatic, and prostate. I call them headline cancers because they grab the headlines. But there are millions of Americans dealing with a lifetime in cancerland which is not the same as life without cancer.
November is lung cancer month. Did you even know that? You couldn't miss the pinkification of October..... Lung cancer, and other non-headline cancers, need their fair share of funding, research, and awareness.
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