Lung cancer research could use more funding
Lung cancer will kill 162,000 people in 2008 which is more than breast, prostate, colon, leukemia, ovarian and cervical cancers combined.
The cause for the drastic difference in death rates between these cancers is the obscenely low amount of funding that goes to lung cancer research. The National Cancer Institute had a $4.8 billion budget in 2007 and spent less then 5 percent of that budget on lung cancer research.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths and the second-leading cause of all deaths in men and women. On Jan. 9, the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2009 was introduced.
The senators who proposed this bill along with the Lung Cancer Alliance (www.lungcanceralliance.
com) are hoping to reduce the mortality rate 50 percent by 2016.
This cancer can be beaten by early detection. More money, dedicated specifically to lung cancer, is desperately needed in order to allow early detection, which would save a priceless number of lives.
All cancers should be treated equally, just as the people who are diagnosed with them should be.
Heather Wakefield
Chapel Hill
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