Over the course of a lifetime, a man in the United States has a 44% chance of being diagnosed with some form of cancer, and a woman 38%.
An estimated 1,529,560 people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in 2010. The leading sites of cancers are:
| Lung: | 222,250 |
| Prostate: | 217,730 |
| Breast: | 207,090 |
| Colon: | 142,570 |
Lung cancer will cause more deaths than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. The leading causes of estimated cancer deaths for 2010 are:
| Lung: |
157,300 |
| Breast: | 39,840 |
| Colon: | 51,370 |
| Prostate: | 32,050 |
The total number of people being diagnosed with any cancer is expected to increase by 45% over the next 20 years. Lung cancer will increase overall by 52%, with increases ranging from 75% to 191% among minority population subsets.
Am I at risk for lung cancer?
Overall, one in fourteen adults will be diagnosed with lung cancer during the course of a lifetime. Smoking is by far the biggest risk factor, causing 80-85% of lung cancer in the U.S. The degree of risk increases with the number of years the person smoked and the number of packs a day.
An important consideration for screening is whether the level of individual risk is high enough for screening to be of benefit.
For more information on smoking and your personal risk, click here.
What is my risk of lung cancer if I used to smoke?
Over half of lung cancers are being diagnosed in former smokers. The longer you have stopped smoking, the lower your risk of lung cancer relative to someone who continues to smoke. . However, a former smoker’s risk of lung cancer will never be as low someone who has never smoked. In general, if individuals have not stopped smoking by ages 45-50 they will remain at a level of risk high enough to benefit from screening for at least 15 years after they quit.
Lung cancer tends to develop slowly and it could be ten to twenty years before symptoms become obvious. In fact, lung cancer frequently shows no symptoms until it has already spread beyond the original site.
What if I still smoke?
Forty percent of smokers will die prematurely of smoking-caused diseases, on average living fourteen years less than non-smokers. Overall, 1 out of 6 men who continue to smoke, and 1 out of every 9 women who continue to smoke, will develop lung cancer in their lifetimes. In the absence of screening, half will die within the first year after diagnosis.
But, stopping smoking at any age will significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer (as well as heart disease and many other illnesses). For example, a two pack a day smoker who stops at age 50 can reduce his risk for lung cancer from one in ten to about one in fifty.
For more information how quitting reduces risk, click here.
If I never smoked, am I at risk?
Even people who never smoked can get lung cancer. An estimated 20-25,000 people who never smoked will die of lung cancer in 2010, which, to put this in context, is more than the combined total of the number of people who die of brain cancer, melanoma and thyroid cancers a year.
You may be at risk if you have a close family member related by blood (mother, father, brother, sister or child, and possibly an aunt or uncle) who died of lung cancer, or if you had significant exposure to second hand smoke or radon. Your occupation or military service may have increased your risk if you had significant exposure to asbestos, Agent Orange, uranium, chromium, arsenic, beryllium, crystalline forms of silica, or other cancer causing chemicals and pollutants.
For the President’s Cancer Panel Report of 2010 on Environmental Factors and Cancer, click here.
For more information on veterans and lung cancer, click here.
Not all the risks factors for lung cancer are understood or even known. To date, screening research has focused primarily on smoking and lung cancer, so little is known about how people can estimate their risk from other factors.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in all ethnic groups, but the impact of lung cancer incidence and mortality appears to be most pronounced on African American men.
For information on African Americans and lung cancer, click here.
We do know that women who never smoked get lung cancer more frequently than men who never smoked, but it is not known why although second hand smoke and certain other factors may play a role.
For information on women and lung cancer, click here.
