Lung Cancer Facts

LUNG CANCER FACTS (Copied with permission from the fabulous Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation)

1. Each year in the US, more than 228,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer, and nearly 160,000 die of the disease.[FN1]
2. Lung cancer takes more lives than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined – it accounts for 27% of all cancer deaths.[FN1]
3. 1 in 14 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer.[FN1]
4. Nearly 80% of new lung cancer cases are former and never smokers – 20.9% current smokers, 60% former smokers, and 17.9% never smokers.[FN1]
5. The 5-year survival rate of lung cancer is 15.9%. Breast cancer has advanced to 98.6% and prostate cancer to 99.2%.[FN2]
6. The percentage of lung cancer diagnosed before it has spread is 15%, compared to prostate cancer (81%) and breast cancer (60%).[FN2]
7. Lung cancer is the second leading cause of all deaths in the U.S.3 8. Genetic predisposition may also play a role in lung cancer development.[FN4]
9. Lung cancer kills more women than any other cancer—nearly 200 women each day and most die within a year of diagnosis.[FN5]
10. Lung Cancer is the least funded cancer in terms of research dollars per death of all the major cancers, and one of the only cancers where patients are routinely blamed as responsible for their condition.[FN5]
11. LUNG CANCER OVERTOOK BREAST CANCER as the leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States in 1987 and now claims the lives of more women each year than breast, ovarian and cervical cancers combined.[FN5]

[FN1] American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2013. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2013.
[FN2] SEER Stat Fact Sheets. Surveillance Research Program, National Cancer Institute.
[FN3] National Center for Health Statistics; American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures
[FN4] Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2011.
[FN5] Out of the Shadows: Women and Lung Cancer”, prepared by the Mary Horrigan Conners Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, April, 2010