Lung Cancer Facts

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer of American men and women.

• Lung cancer kills almost twice as many American women as breast cancer annually and three times as many men as prostate cancer.
• 1 in 13 men and 1 in 16 women will get lung cancer in their lifetime.
• Approximately 219,400 people are diagnosed with lung cancer in the U.S. each year. This means an American is diagnosed with lung cancer every 2.5 minutes.

Here are more startling facts about lung cancer:

• Lung cancer kills nearly 160,000 people annually – more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.¹
• Although the risk of developing lung cancer goes down after you quit smoking, a significant risk remains for 20 years or longer after quitting.^2,3
• Roughly 10% to 15% of lung cancer patients have never smoked. That means between 20,000 to 30,000 never-smokers are diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States each year.
• Approximately 50% of all lung cancers (106,500) occur in people who have already quit smoking.⁴
• Less money is spent on lung cancer research than on research on other cancers. In 2006, the National Cancer Institute estimated it spent only $1,638 per lung cancer death compared to $13,519 per breast cancer death, $11,298 per prostate cancer death, and $4,588 per colorectal cancer.^1,5

To learn more about lung cancer, visit www.NationalLungCancerPartnership.org.

References Cited

1. American Cancer Society.  Cancer Facts and Figures 2008.  Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2008.
2. Satcher, D., T.G. Thompson and J.P. Kaplan, Women and smoking: a report of the Surgeon General. Nicotine Tob Res, 2002. 4(1): p. 7-20
3. Ebbert, J.O., et al., Lung cancer risk reduction after smoking cessation: observations from a prospective cohort of women. J Clin Oncol, 2003. 21(5): p. 921-6.
4. Tong, L., M.R. Spitz, J.J. Fueger, and C.A. Amos, Lung carcinoma in former smokers. Cancer, 1996. 78(5): p. 1004-10.
5. National Cancer Institute Snapshots: http://planning.cancer.gov/disease/snapshots.shtml