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Some people use statistics to try to know their chance of getting cancer. Or they use them to know the chance they can be cured. But statistics show what happens to large groups of people. Because no two people are alike, statistics can’t be used to predict what will happen to a particular person.
These are some 2007 statistics about lung cancer from the American Cancer Society.
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Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. About 87% of lung cancer cases result from smoking or exposure to tobacco smoke. Compared to nonsmokers, men who smoke are 23 times more likely to die of lung cancer. Women who smoke are 13 times more likely to die of lung cancer than nonsmokers. The risk for lung cancer is no different in those who smoke light or low-tar products.
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Each year, about 3,000 nonsmoking adults will die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke.
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About 213,000 people will be told they have lung cancer this year.
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The average age of people diagnosed with lung cancer is 70. Lung cancer is not common in people younger than age 45.
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The number of men who die of lung cancer is going down. That’s been true since 1991. The number of women who die of lung cancer is going up. That’s been true for several decades. The death rate for women has recently leveled off.
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Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer among both men and women.
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More people die of lung cancer every year than from colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.
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Lung cancer makes up 12% of all cancer cases. It causes 29% of all deaths from cancer.