Lung Cancer Prevention

Part of an ongoing series dedicated to raising health and safety awareness across the Temple community.

In 2004, 358,128 Americans were living with lung cancer. Women accounted for 183,248 lung cancer cases in the United States while men accounted for 174,880 cases. During 2007, an estimated 213,380 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed, representing about 15 percent of all cancer diagnoses.

Since November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Temple’s Health and Safety Committee would like to provide you with some alarming lung cancer facts and highlight what the Temple Community is doing to prevent lung cancer and its resultant deaths:

• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
• Lung cancer causes 30% of all cancer deaths.
• Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer among Caucasians, African-Americans, Asians and Hispanic males.
• Lung cancer will kill more people this year than:
  • breast cancer
  • prostate cancer
  • colon cancer
  • liver cancer
  • kidney cancer
  • melanoma...combined
• Lung cancer will kill 3 times as many men as prostate cancer this year.
• Lung cancer will kill nearly twice as many women as breast cancer this year.
• Over 50% of new lung cancer cases will be diagnosed at a very late stage—Stage IIIb or IV—and only 5% of them will live for 5 years.

The prognosis for a patient with lung cancer depends, to a large extent, on the stage of the cancer. Staging is used to determine whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to what other parts of the body. Stages include localized (within lungs), regional (spread to lymph nodes) and distant (spread to other organs). The five-year survival rate is 49% for cases detected when the disease is still localized. Unfortunately, only 16% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at an early stage. For distant tumors, the five-year survival rate is only 3%. About 6 out of 10 people with lung cancer die within one year of being diagnosed.

The financial costs of cancer are staggering. According to the National Institutes of Health, cancers cost the United States an overall $206 billion in 2006. It is estimated that approximately $9.6 billion per year is spent in the United States on lung cancer treatment alone.

What Temple is doing to help prevent lung cancer:

Since smoking accounts for 87% of lung cancer deaths and nonsmokers have a 20-30% greater chance of developing lung cancer if they are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work, the University targets and supports prevention and cessation efforts. To protect the health of the University community, the University designates all buildings as smoke-free. Smoking in vehicles owned or leased by the University is prohibited. Smoking is also prohibited within 25 feet of a main entrance, exit, or operable window of a University building.

For students, the University’s Student Health Services (SHS) offers smoking cessation programs and free nicotine replacement medications. Please visit the SHS website at http://www.temple.edu/studenthealth/Smoking_Cessation.html for more information.

For faculty, staff and students enrolled in an Independence Blue Cross (IBC) health plan, reimbursement of up to $200 dollars is available upon the successful completion of a smoking cessation program. Please click here for information on the IBC smoking cessation initiative.

In addition, the Health Behavior Research Center operates a Smoking Clinic which targets members of the University and members of the surrounding communities. Please visit the Smoking Clinic’s website at http://www.temple.edu/hbrc/smoking_clinic.html for more information.

This article is reprinted in part from the American Lung Association (www.lungusa.org), and the Lung Cancer Alliance (www.lungcanceralliance.org) as part of an ongoing series of health and safety articles aiming to raise awareness among Temple University employees, faculty and students about a range of health and safety issues. This is an initiative developed by Temple’s Health and Safety Committee, comprising members from across the University community. If you have health and safety questions, suggestions or concerns, please e-mail the Health and Safety Committee at healthandsafety@temple.edu.