November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. It is a time to emphasize better community awareness of this mostly preventable disease that remains a major cause of illness and death. In 2017, data showed 221,121 new cases and 145,849 deaths from lung cancer in the United States. This was the greatest number of deaths caused by any type of cancer.
Lung cancer does not have to take such a massive toll. In 1912, it was described as “one of the rarest forms of cancer.”
Unfortunately, the subsequent widespread adoption of smoking led to an epidemic of lung cancer [1]. CDC notes that even now, 9 out of 10 lung cancers are caused by smoking cigarettes.