Management Organization (RMO) headquartered in Denver, Colorado sponsored the first annual Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Walk/Run in Gainesville, Florida.  This event was called “Run Amuck With the Duck” in honor of a Florida-based woman who is currently battling non-small cell lung cancer and is being treated at one of Pharmatech Oncology’s research network member sites.  She wants to raise awareness and money for research about lung cancer in smokers, and those who do not smoke.  The event was held Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at North Florida Regional Medical Center.

… That was the Friday before spring break. Young spent the next five days in the hospital undergoing tests.

She was released on a Wednesday and told to come back the following day. When she arrived, she was told she had Stage 4 lung cancer. The prognosis: Young had three to eight months to live.

She had no symptoms, but her lungs were covered with tumors, and she had damage to her liver and hip bones. Young, 43, never smoked a cigarette and had always been athletic and healthy.

Pharmatech Oncology, Inc., a Research Management Organization (RMO) headquartered in Denver, Colorado sponsored the first annual Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Walk/Run in Gainesville, Florida.  This event was called “Run Amuck With the Duck” in honor of a Florida-based woman who is currently battling non-small cell lung cancer and is being treated at one of Pharmatech Oncology’s research network member sites.  She wants to raise awareness and money for research about lung cancer in smokers, and those who do not smoke.  The event was held Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at North Florida Regional Medical Center.

The number of women diagnosed with lung cancer is soaring, but federal funding for research lags even though the disease is more common than cancer of the breast, prostate, and colon—combined. A new report drills down on research about women and lung cancer, sorting out findings about incidence, gender disparities, and survival. Perhaps most interesting, “all federal spending for lung cancer research amounts to $1,249 for each lung cancer death,” Richard Know writes for NPR. “Spending for breast cancer research is 21 times higher—$27,480 per death.”

Lung cancer is in a class by itself. It’s the biggest and baddest cancer out there — accounting for more diagnoses and deaths than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined.

But for women, lung cancer represents a unique health threat.

Lung cancer diagnoses in women have jumped six-fold over the past three decades, while in men the incidence has gone down.

Women tend to develop lung cancer at younger ages. And women are much more likely to get lung cancer despite never having smoked — a group that numbers about 25,000 a year. Female lung cancer patients who have never smoked outnumber men never-smokers by 3 to 1.

Lung cancer kills more women than any other cancer – nearly 200 women each day. Most die within a year of diagnosis. Yet lung cancer remains the “hidden” women’s cancer – little known and rarely discussed. It is the least funded cancer in terms of research dollars per death of all the major cancers, and one of the only cancers where patients are routinely blamed as responsible for their condition. To bring lung cancer “Out of the Shadows,” the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology has developed this first comprehensive overview of women and lung cancer. The Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program gratefully acknowledges the Lung Cancer Alliance for its encouragement and assistance in this endeavor, and for its commitment to making this report a focal point for broader public health policy debate on women and lung cancer.

Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) hailed today’s release of “Out of the Shadows: Women and Lung Cancer,” a groundbreaking report issued by the Mary Horrigan Connors Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

“This is the wake-up call for women,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, LCA President & CEO.  She called the report the most current and comprehensive ever done for the general public on lung cancer.  Fenton also congratulated Yolanda Colson, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of “Out of the Shadows” and her research team for their extraordinary efforts to produce the important and timely report.

Out of the Shadows: Women and Lung Cancer, a groundbreaking report released today by the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a call to action on women’s largest cancer challenge: lung cancer.

As an organization devoted to women’s health advocacy, education and research, the Society for Women’s health Research (SWHR) commends the efforts of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Lung Cancer Alliance for providing the most current and comprehensive report to date on the impact of lung cancer on women.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, with most cases linked to smoking. But not everyone who gets lung cancer smokes. Indeed, among nonsmokers, lung cancer is still the seventh most-common cause of cancer worldwide. Most of the lung cancer cases among nonsmokers are in women.

I have lost special people to breast cancer. Heck, I may wind up with it myself. So, as a lung cancer advocate, please don’t get me wrong. Breast cancer awareness and funding is hugely important.

However, the latest breast cancer awareness campaign with Kentucky Fried Chicken, has prompted me to finally blog about it. It’s a very sensitive and emotional issue and one that I have refrained from discussing on “WTF?,” as I know how words can be taken out of context and/or misinterpreted.