NOVEMBER IS LUNG CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

34th Great American Smokeout - November 19, 2009

Less Smoking Leads to More Birthdays!

As the official sponsor of birthdays, the American Cancer Society marks the 34th Great American Smokeout on November 19 by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day. By doing so, smokers will be taking an important step towards a healthier life – one that can lead to reducing cancer risk and creating more birthdays. Researchers say that quitting smoking can increase life expectancy – smokers who quit at age 35 gain an average of eight years of life expectancy; those who quit at age 55 gain about five years; and even long term smokers who quit at 65 gain three years.

Research shows that people who stop smoking before age 50 can cut their risk of dying in the next 15 years in half compared with those who continue to smoke. Smokers who quit also reduce their risk of lung cancer – ten years after quitting, the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker’s. Some of the health effects of quitting are almost instant, too – heart rate and blood pressure drop 20 minutes after quitting.

The Great American Smokeout Web site (www.cancer.org/GreatAmericans) contains user-friendly tips and tools towards a smoke-free life. In addition to tip sheets and calculators, the site also offers downloadable desktop helpers to assist with planning to quit and succeeding in staying tobacco-free. The Quit Clock allows users to pick a quit day within 30 days, then counts down the selected day with tips for each day; and the Craving Stopper helps smokers beat cravings by offering a fun distraction. The American Cancer Society created the trademarked concept for and held its first Great American Smokeout in 1976 as a way to inspire and encourage smokers to quit for a day. One million people quit smoking for a day at the 1976 event in California. The Great American Smokeout encourages smokers to commit to making a long-term plan to quit smoking for good.

Important facts about tobacco use:

• Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S.
• Cigarette smoking accounts for about 443,000 premature deaths – including 49,400 in nonsmokers.
• Thirty percent of cancer deaths, including 87 percent of lung cancer deaths, can be attributed to tobacco.
• Smoking also accounts for $193 billion in health care expenditures and productivity losses.
• Great progress is being made in reducing tobacco use in the U.S., with adult smoking rates in 2007 declining among all adults to 19.8 percent.

What is Lung Cancer? 

Lung cancer is a cancer starts in the lungs, usually in the lining of the bronchi. Lung cancer often takes many years to develop. First, there may be areas of pre-cancerous changes in the lung. These changes are not a mass or tumor. They can't be seen on an x-ray and they don't cause symptoms. Since most people with early lung cancer do not have any symptoms, only a small number of lung cancers are found at an early stage. When lung cancer is found early, it is often because of tests that were being done for something else.

Because most lung cancers do not cause symptoms until they have spread, you should report any of the following problems to your doctor right away. Often these problems are caused by something other than cancer. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:

• a cough that does not go away
• chest pain, often made worse by deep breathing, coughing, or laughing
• hoarseness
• weight loss and loss of appetite
• bloody or rust-colored sputum (spit or phlegm)
• shortness of breath
• infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia that keep coming back
• new onset of wheezing

What causes Lung Cancer?

A risk factor is anything that affects a person's chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, such as smoking, can be controlled. Others, like a person's age or family history, can't be changed.

But risk factors don't tell us everything. Having a risk factor, or even many risk factors, does not mean that you will get the disease. And many people who get the disease may not have had any known risk factors. Even if a person with lung cancer has a risk factor, it is often very hard to know how much that risk factor may have contributed to the cancer.

Still, having several risk factors can make you more likely to develop lung cancer.

• Tobacco Smoke - smoking, secondhand smoke and Hookah smoke
• Radon
• Aspestos
• Personal or family history of Lung Cancer
• A diet low in fruits and vegetables
• Air pollution  

What are the current statistics?

The American Cancer Society's most recent estimates for lung cancer in the United States are for 2009:

• 219,440 new cases of lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell)
• 159,390 deaths from lung cancer

Lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell) is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. Lung cancer is fairly rare in people under the age of 45.  The average lifetime chance that a man will develop lung cancer is about 1 in 13. For a woman it is 1 in 16. These numbers include both smokers and non-smokers. For smokers the risk is much higher, while for non-smokers the risk is lower.

Relay For Life of Hillsboro 2010
A Fairytale Farewell to Cancer

What will your 'Fairytale' be?