LungBlog

Lung cancer, the nation’s leading cause of cancer deaths for women and men, remains the most under-funded, under-researched and under-supported cancer. There are currently no approved early detection tests for lung cancer. With a 5-year survival rate of only 15%, the prognosis for lung cancer has not changed in 40 years. A new organization, Lung Cancer Foundation of America (LCFA) is trying to change this reality, and save lives by dramatically increasing the five-year survival rate for all stages of lung cancer. LCFA will accomplish this by providing the necessary and critical funding for creative and leading edge lung cancer research programs.

Today, the United States Congress approved an additional $15 million in research funding for lung cancer as part of the fiscal year 2010 Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations package. This brings the total to $35 million that Congress has appropriated to date for the new program since it was launched in October of last year. The bill will now be sent to the President for signature.

Lung cancer kills more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer and skin cancer combined, and it is the most common cause of cancer death.

In partnership with the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research will host the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, which will bring together leaders from all over the world who share the goal of eradicating this form of cancer.

Kentucky ranks 40th among states in the amount of money it spends to persuade people to quit or never start smoking, according to a report released Wednesday by anti-smoking groups.

Health advocates in Kentucky have been pushing the legislature to increase funding for tobacco cessation programs and to allocate about $1.5 million to fund a 2007 law that would allow the state’s Medicaid program to pay for smoking cessation aids, such as nicotine patches.

Lung cancer symptoms are very elusive and misleading. Mostly the condition is diagnosed only after having reached advanced stages. As of now there is no screening procedure for lung cancer. Symptoms are almost non existent where lung cancer is concerned.

There might be a mild cough or shortness of breath that can also be attributed to some respiratory infections. This is the main reason as to why most of the lung cancer cases go undiagnosed in the early stages. Only a meagre 16% of the cases are diagnosed early enough to facilitate treatment and cure.

Chris Tate of Pasco wanted his first tattoo to mean something.

That’s why on Saturday he waited at Asylum Tattoo in Pasco to receive a cancer ribbon tattoo with the colors representing the cancers that have affected his life — orange for leukemia, which he survived at age 3, and blue for colon cancer, which his grandmother died from in March.

Asylum Tattoo offered free cancer ribbon tattoos Saturday to provide cancer awareness and to raise money for the Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation. A box was put out for donations.

Resident  Estelle Branden is a survivor.

She was among the more than 100 who  attended the recent Women’s Guild Lung Institute Lung Cancer Survivor Celebra-tion at Cedars-Sinai  Medical Center.

Branden, who attended  for her second year, had BAC Cancer. Bronchioalveolar cancer, sometimes called the “mystery” lung cancer, accounts for 2 to 14 percent of all lung cancers and less is known about this type of cancer than other non-small cell lung cancers.
The World Health Organiza-tion has classified BAC as a type of acenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer that is more common in non-smokers.

Today, Lung Cancer Alliance-Massachusetts (LCA-MA) issued its 3rd Annual Report Card on Lung Cancer. The 2009 Report Card is an assessment of progress being made against this lethal disease in the state of Massachusetts. LCA-MA is a chapter of Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA), the only national organization dedicated exclusively to patient support and advocacy for people living with or at risk for lung cancer.

Once again, a medical screening program designed for the early detection of lung cancer is available to eligible current and former Department of Energy K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant nuclear weapons workers.

Beginning this month, the Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP) has resumed the K-25 low-dose CT scanning program intended to detect lung cancer at its early and most treatable stage.

Today is a bittersweet day. Have you ever begun to grieve the end of something, while you are still in the midst of the celebration? I feel like a bride during her wedding dance already missing the guests. But on this last day of Lung Cancer Awareness Month it’s time for me to take the advice of my holistic friends. Stay in the present. Appreciate the efforts of everyone who is working so hard, and do what I can today.