Lung cancer is the deadliest of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. However, research on the disease in the United States is not as funded as breast or prostate cancer. That’s changing, thanks to one person effort and new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.
Lung cancer causes more deaths each year in the United States than colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined.
That’s about 25 percent of all cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.
Anyone can get this disease, although smokers are the most vulnerable.
Former American football player Chris Draft lived through these stats directly. A month after their marriage in 2011, he lost his wife to this terminal illness.
“He was stage four lung cancer, 37 years old, and had never smoked,” Draft said. His disease was discovered late, despite his healthy lifestyle. Although there were incredible developments in the field of treatment at that time, unfortunately my wife could not access some of the new treatments. He went into chemotherapy and died a year later”, summarizing his experiences.
Draft founded the Draft Team Family Foundation to help lung cancer patients and their families, while campaigning for more research into the disease to honor his wife’s memory.
Draft’s foundation was established before his marriage. He called on his then-fiancee, friends and family to donate to the foundation instead of gifts.
10 years later, Team Draft continues to support lung cancer research.
Doctors state that there have been significant developments in lung cancer in recent years.
Director of Thoracic Surgery Unit at Inova, Dr. Michael Weyant says, “Smoking but threshold patients can be saved by a CAT scan. In addition, there is much progress in the medical treatment of lung cancer. We can look for genetic markers or identify the tumor and target these specific cells. “This is a significant advance in lung cancer treatment over the past 10 years.”
In light of these new treatments, the CDC has recently updated its lung cancer guidelines.
Accordingly, those who have smoked for 15 years will undergo a CAT scan every year after the age of 50. If they are not in the high risk group, they do not need to undergo this screening if they do not smoke.
As with all types of cancer, the aim is to catch the disease at an early stage.
Weyant said, “When we encounter lung cancer, the tumors are small and form at an early stage. Thus, we can intervene and heal with methods such as surgery.”
According to the European Cancer Research Foundation, video screening reduced the death rate from lung cancer by 26 percent in men and 61 percent in women.
The draft also says research is key to saving lives.
“If we want things to change, we have to focus on research. Low smokers or non-smokers may notice this early. “We can save more lives from here than now.”
Lung cancer affects more women than men worldwide. Every year, 600,000 women die from this disease.