While the Nov. 7 LiveSmart page offered information on lung afflictions like pneumonia and COPD, it omitted lung cancer. Yet, November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and lung cancer remains the leading cause of all cancer deaths. It kills more people each year than breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancers combined.
It is not just a smokers' disease. Eighty percent of newly diagnosed cases are in "never-smokers" and former smokers who gave up smoking decades ago.
No one deserves to die from lung cancer. There is hope. Today, there is scientific validation that screening those at high risk with low-dose CT scans can save tens of thousands of lives a year.
Thomas Fabian, Albany Medical Center's chief thoracic surgeon, will provide information on the life-saving benefits of early screening for high-risk people at the fourth annual Shine a Light on Lung Cancer Vigil, hosted by the New York chapter of the Lung Cancer Alliance in partnership with Albany Medical Center.
Attendees to Tuesday's event, at Albany Medical Center Hilton Garden Inn, 62 New Scotland Ave., also will hear from a woman who lost her 25-year-old sister to the disease. Like me, a nine-year survivor, the young woman was never a smoker. Only 15 percent survive five years or more.
To register for the event, which begins with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m., visit www.albanyvigil.kintera.org.
PHYLLIS GOLDSTEIN
Director, Lung Cancer Alliance New York