In the United States, lung cancer claims more women’s lives each year than breast, ovarian, and cervical cancers combined. In many countries around the world, it has become the leading cause of cancer death in women. This November and December, the Lung Cancer Research Foundation® (LCRF) is shining a spotlight on women and lung cancer, with the goal of educating the public about these staggering statistics.
“Everyone has women in their life—a loved one, friend, co-worker— so this disease truly does impact everyone,” said Joan H. Schiller, MD, Chair of LCRF’s Scientific Steering Committee. “Our goal is to raise awareness to better understand lung cancer risks, particularly for women, and improve outcomes for those diagnosed.”
Worldwide, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in women and over 500,000 women die of the disease each year. While lung cancer incidence remains lower in women than in men, the gap has been narrowing in recent years. With a higher proportion of lung cancer among nonsmokers occurring in women, these are troubling statistics. In an effort to raise awareness, LCRF has created a page on its website dedicated to women and lung cancer, http://lcrf.org/women. Visitors will learn the facts about lung cancer and will have the opportunity to read stories of women currently living with lung cancer.
LCRF is the leading nonprofit organization focused on funding innovative, high-reward lung cancer research with the potential to extend survival and improve quality of life for people with lung cancer. The organization’s mission is to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of lung cancer. This campaign, focused on women and lung cancer, will help to highlight an important area that warrants additional study. “By talking about these grim statistics, we hope to raise awareness and highlight the importance of research and how lung cancer is affecting women,” said Schiller.
To learn more information and download a fact sheet on women and lung cancer, visit http://lcrf.org/women. This initiative is sponsored by Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Genentech and Takeda Oncology.
