I love autumn. My favorite season is marked by the changing colors of leaves, the cooler breezes and the fun of Hallowe’en. October has traditionally been my favorite month, marking the real onset of autumn. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the advocates for this have done a tremendous job over the past decades, leading toward huge increases in funding for research and also leaps forward in treatment. The popularity of this movement, however, overshadows Lung Cancer Awareness Month, right on its heels in November. While the movement for Lung Cancer Awareness might not be as popular, the disease itself is equally entrenched and far more deadly. But the greater public has yet to rally for this affliction with anywhere near the fervor of other causes, in spite of an overall very small piece of the research pie.

“The American Cancer Society’s estimates for lung cancer in the United States for 2015 are:

• About 221,200 new cases of lung cancer (115,610 in men and 105,590 in women)
• An estimated 158,040 deaths from lung cancer (86,380 in men and 71,660 among women).

Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.” (From cancer.org)

While there are roughly the same number of diagnoses each year for breast, prostate and lung cancers, the gross disparity in mortality from these cancers highlights the need for greater lung cancer awareness across the board.

The fact is, roughly twice as many women die from lung cancer than from breast cancer, and yet breast cancer has roughly twice as much research funding. When it comes to this disparity, which does not even take into account the even greater number of men who die from lung cancer each year, it begs the question of whether lung cancer research and funding lags because of the marketing juggernaut that is the ubiquitous pink ribbon, or because of the victim blaming so closely associated with lung cancer as a result of its ties to smoking.

Right about the time that Breast Cancer Awareness was taking off in the late 80s, Lung Cancer had already surpassed it as the leading cause of cancer death in women. Because lung cancer tended to be diagnosed in older populations, and many of them were smokers, it is no surprise that a cancer hitting younger women would grab the public’s attention. But the facts are changing, and while many patients receiving their first diagnosis are septuagenarian, the greatest rise in lung cancer incidence is in younger non-smokers.

Amazingly, scientists have created numerous effective treatments that are capable of greatly expanding the lives of lung cancer patients, even sometimes in advanced cases. The sad nature of lung cancer, however, is that it is still generally not diagnosed until it is already somewhat advanced. Unlike breast cancer, there has been no push for early detection of lung cancer. Awareness of this condition is lacking in our society, in spite of the increasing likelihood that virtually everyone will know a friend or relative who has lung cancer at some point. This is hardly surprising considering that, even with a long list of possible cancers, lung cancer still manages to account for over a quarter of all cancer deaths: more than the combined deaths from colorectal, breast and prostate cancers.

Another interesting correlation to Breast Cancer Awareness comes from dissecting the diagnosis and survival statistics on lung cancer. It turns out that, although their numbers have begun to decline somewhat — probably due to a decrease in smokers — there are still more men diagnosed with lung cancer each year. The number of women receiving a lung cancer diagnosis has skyrocketed over the past three decades; though the numbers for men appear to have plateaued, they continue to rise for women. However, even as there are still fewer new women diagnosed each year than men, for a variety of reasons the men have died at a greater rate, leaving more women actually living with lung cancer each year. Increasingly, younger, healthier women are being diagnosed — but without the support of a fancy, brightly colored and highly recognizable ribbon.

There is a ribbon for Lung Cancer Awareness. I recently discovered that this ribbon has been around for years, but it never hit my radar. Everyone knows that Pink Ribbon. Pink stands out, easy to see, easy to identify. The color for Lung Cancer Awareness: clear. Or at least it had been; the color has been changed to a pearl-white because it became obvious that “clear” was simply not going to stand out. Conceptually, it made sense — it was supposed to represent clear lungs, or “air.” That message was largely lost, however, with the confusion of not really being able to tell that the ribbon was there. And white may not be that much better, resembling, as it does, the color of smoke, especially of the ribbon gets a bit dirty during wear. That aside, at least there is a ribbon and the foundation of a movement.

The Shine a Light campaign is working hard to raise awareness during the month of November. But it has an uphill battle to reach the mainstream psyche and connect on a level anywhere close to the effects of that Pink Ribbon. I am planning to speak at an event at Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital next weekend and I will be watching out for more opportunities to raise awareness, both through Shine a Light and elsewhere.

I hope that you do, too.

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