Detecting Lung Cancer Blog

When it comes to awareness and research funding, lung cancer does not rank as one of the top funded.

This should come as a surprise, as lung cancer causes more deaths in the United States than melanoma, kidney, prostate, liver, breast and colon cancers combined.

Another surprising statistic is that early detection of lung cancer occurs much less often than the detection of colon cancer, for example.

As we’ve mentioned in past posts, knowing your risk is key to detecting lung cancer early. If it’s found in early stages, the lung cancer survival rate more than triples from a tiny 15% to above 50%.

In our third installment of Celebrity Smokers, we will focus on sports figures who pitched for Big Tobacco from the 1920s into the ’50s, and some of the wild claims which were made by tobacco companies at the time.

A lung cancer diagnosis brings with it at least two more important pieces of information: the type of lung cancer and the different lung cancer stages.

There are two main types of lung cancer: Small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer then breaks down into four categories: squamous cell (epidermoid) carcinoma, large-cell undifferentiated carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and bronchioalveolar carcinoma.

Despite getting less attention and less funding than other forms of cancer, the fact remains: Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer in the United States.

The disease doesn’t discriminate: it tops the list for men, women and all ethnic groups, resulting in over 157,000 deaths projected in 2010 according to the American Cancer Society.

That results in 27% of all cancer deaths for 2010—in fact, more than 1 in 4 cancer deaths are lung cancer deaths.

In the second part of our posting on the impact of celebrities and smoking, we’ll take a look at a few more famous folks who endorsed tobacco, but also ask the big question:

Why?

Money is the first, most obvious reason for the endorsements, but there was more to it than the cash. It was about image, it was about their craft.

According to the Stanford School of Medicine’s exhibit “Not a Cough in a Carload“ many famous Hollywood stars appeared in cigarette ads in the 1930s through the early 1950s—as a result, millions of fans followed their screen idols’ lives and tastes.

There are two primary reasons why early lung cancer detection can prove difficult:

First, symptoms of lung cancer may not show up until the cancer is well advanced, and when survival rates are dangerously low.

Second, the symptoms themselves might be attributable to a variety of problems, causing a delay in a proper diagnosis.

Celebrity smokers are common—pictures of Hollywood’s most famous and infamous with a cigarette in hand are not shocking in today’s society. What may be shocking, however, is the number of celebrities who used to not only smoke, but endorsed smoking companies!

General asbestos exposure is common, and—in the case of environmental asbestos found in soil, air and water—not harmful, as it naturally occurs at levels too low to cause damage.

Generally, women smoke and inhale tobacco smoke less often than men—so, logically, they should get lung cancer less frequently than men, right?

Wrong.

Most people could create a fairly accurate list of lung cancer risk factors just from their general knowledge of the disease. Smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke, asbestos, radon or other harmful carcinogens, a family history of lung cancer—all of these factors play a role in determining an individual’s personal lung cancer risk.

Secondhand smoke has been considered a lung cancer risk factor for years, which leads to a question that many still ask – what can be done to avoid the very real, very harmful side effects?

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan’s girlfriend and the muse for his breakthrough album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan recently passed away from lung cancer. She was only 67. 

According to Rolling Stone, Rotolo was the muse behind many of Dylan’s early love songs. She was just 17 when they began dating in 1961, shortly after Dylan arrived in New York City.