Quitting smoking is not going to cure lung cancer

“Quitting smoking is not going to cure lung cancer;

research dollars will.” LUNGevity

As my lung cancer odyssey began I felt guilty because I was screened as part of a yearly physical and my lung cancer was detected early while treatment options were at maximum – because I was a smoker.

Almost a year later the more I learn the more angry I get that more are not eligible for early screening and detection.

I am angry that the stigma of lung cancer as a smoker’s disease may cause ‘never smokers’ to be misdiagnosed. Nearly 80% of new lung cancer cases are never smokers and former smokers.

I am angry that stigmas delay treatment! – With symptoms usually only appearing in more advanced cases, 50% of lung cancer is diagnosed after the cancer has metastasized (Stage IV).

At risk of oversimplification because I was a smoker my lung cancer was detected so early it was operable as Stage I without any radiation or chemo.

Nor does this early detection and surgery mean I am cured. Unfortunately lung cancer recurrence is far too common and recurrence is more ‘bad ass’ than the original. … Improving chances are about research.

I am angry that the self-righteous short change critical research money because of the stigma of smoking.

Thirty years ago a self-righteous band played on while I buried too many friends and coworkers because of the stigma of AIDS.

Don't the self-righteous ever get tired?

Virtually none of the $246 billion in tobacco settlement money is going toward lung cancer research while at the same time an increasingly toxic world is being considered as an afterthought to cigarettes.

The President of the United States quit smoking sometime in 2011 after 30+ years. I began Chantix in late 2011 and quit smoking after 40+ years.

Kudos to us both; however, the buck does not stop here. Quitting smoking is not going to cure lung cancer … for those 1 in 14 Americans who will be diagnosed over the next 12 months … and for the family and friends of the 160,000 who will die over the next year – lung cancer does not give a damn whether you ever smoked or not. 

(Graphs copied from original LUNGevity article and based on - estimated federal spending from the combined FY2011 research dollars of the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Estimated cancer deaths from the American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts and Figures 2011. 5-year survival rates by year of diagnosis from the SEER Cancer Statistics Review 1975-2009, posted in 2012.)

Patrick Leer

BLOGS:

Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/

My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/

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