November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month - every year 10,000 men and 17,000 women who have never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer in the U.S. That is a startling number and one that deserves more attention. Unfortunately, lung cancer is known as the "smoker's disease." Because of this stigma, few resources are dedicated to lung cancer research. Although lifestyle can contribute to other cancers, they don't have the same stigma as lung cancer.  
 
Women who have never smoked account for 20% of all female lung cancer patients.  For 2009, the overall death toll for lung cancer patients who have never smoked is expected to reach 23,905.  Remember Christopher Reeve's wife, Dana?  She is an example of a non-smoker who died from lung cancer.  
 
Lung cancer causes more deaths each year than breast cancer and all gynecological cancers combined.  Nevertheless, research spending per death is only $1,249 for lung cancer, compared to $27,480 for breast cancer.  The amount of money spent on research correlates with survival rates. The five year survival rate for lung cancer is still only 15% (the same since Nixon's War on Cancer in 1971) while other cancers that have received significant federal research funding, such as breast, prostate and colon cancers, now have 5 year survival rates of 87%, 99% and 64% respectively.   
 
What can you do?  Help rid lung cancer of its stigma!  Talk to your friends and neighbors about lung cancer misconceptions and symptoms. The more we can inform people, the more people can advocate for research. Support the "Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2009", which declares lung cancer a public health priority, and authorizes the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Defense and Veterans Affairs to develop a research program with the goal of cutting lung cancer's mortality in half by 2016.