Lung cancer prevention

Lung cancer continues to exact a huge toll on the health status of Americans and peopie worldwide. In the United States (U.S.), the number of new lung cancer cases diagnosed per year has reached epidemic proportions. In 2004, an estimated 173,770 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed, representing 12.7% of the 1,368,030 new cases of all cancers diagnosed in 2004 (Jemal, Ti- wan et al. 2004). While prostate cancer and breast cancer lead new cancer cases in American men and women respectively in 2004, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death for both men and women, with an estimated 160,440 of all 563,700 cancer deaths, or 28.5%, attributable to lung cancer. While once thought to be mainly a man's disease, lung cancer is now represented in a nearly equal fashion between the sexes, with women diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004 representing a full 46% of all new cases (Jemal, Tiwari et al. 2004).