Lung cancer kills more than four times as many Americans as breast cancer. But while pink ribbons trumpet Breast Cancer Awareness Month throughout October, little attention is paid to lung cancer in November, which is that disease’s awareness month.”My wish is the world would stand up and say we’ve done so well with breast cancer, let’s now do the same for lung cancer,” says Douglas Arenberg, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine and a lung cancer specialist at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Once people are aware of the facts, they start scratching their heads and thinking we need to do something about this,” Arenberg says.

The facts are these:
- Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in both men and women.
- Five-year survival rates have hovered around 15 percent for the last 20 years, with little improvement.
- Federal funding alone favors breast cancer over lung cancer 10:1.
- $11,000 in breast cancer research is funded for every one person who dies of breast cancer. For lung cancer, it’s closer to $1,000 per person.