November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and with it, renewed interest in what is still the most diagnosed cancer in the world when both sexes are combined. Recent statistics show that about 2.5 million new cases are discovered each year, representing one in eight cancers worldwide (12%).
In the United States, lung cancer accounts for about 11% of all new cancer diagnoses (about 227,000 cases per year). While most lung cancers are attributed to smoking, the disease also strikes an increasing number of people who never smoked (20,000-40,000 cases per year).
One alarming statistic is that among never-smokers (defined as having smoked less than 100 cigarettes), females had a 54% higher risk for developing lung cancer compared to their male counterparts. Dr. Narjust Florez of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said that “Younger women take three times as long to be diagnosed compared with younger men – even when you match for age, risk factors, and geography.”
Studies show that secondhand (environmental) tobacco smoke, outdoor and indoor air pollution, and genetic susceptibility (family history and genomic variants such as EGFR mutations and ALK gene rearrangements) are risk factors for lung cancer in non/never-smokers. These represent 15-20% of all lung cancers worldwide!
According to the American Lung Association, less than a third of lung cancers are diagnosed at an early stage. Progression is often silent, and by the time symptoms such as cough, chest discomfort, or shortness of breath are taken seriously by patients and health care professionals, the disease has often progressed. Not surprisingly, it has one of the lowest five-year survival rates of all cancers and remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide.
All of the above are reasons enough to increase the public’s awareness of lung cancer.
If we are to combat lung cancer effectively, November and every month should be lung cancer awareness month. It is crucial for all health care providers to recognize the dangers of this disease and the need for people at risk to enroll in newly developing lung cancer screening programs. Both specialists and primary care providers should never neglect the possibility of lung cancer in non-smokers, including in men and women under the age of sixty-five. I have heard too many stories about doctors who ignored what turned out to be early symptoms of the disease or neglected to follow up with someone at low or no risk, whose cough transiently disappeared enough for them to avoid seeking more medical attention.
From a philosophical standpoint, awareness involves more than information processing. It is a character of our consciousness. To become “aware” means to experience something and to consciously recognize what we are doing, feeling, and thinking in the present moment. The menace of lung cancer is real, and like many illnesses, threatens us all.
Let’s be AWARE of that and do something about it.
- American Cancer Society. (2025). Cancer facts & figures 2025. American Cancer Society.
- American Lung Association. New report: Lung cancer survival rate improves…https://www.lung.org/media/press-releases/state-of-lung-cancer-2024.
- Bray F, Laversanne M, Sung H, et al. Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024; 74(3): 229-263. doi:10.3322/caac.21834
- Couraud, S., Zalcman, G., Milleron, B., et al. Lung cancer in never smokers – A review. European Journal of Cancer;2012:48(9), 1299–1311.
- Narjust Florez (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) https://www.uicc.org/news-and-updates/news/25-m6-hidden-epidemic-rise-lung-cancer-among-women-and-need-equity
- Hui C et al. Higher lung cancer risk among female never-smokers than males in a large married couple study. Lung Cancer 2025;210; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lungcan.2025.108836.