Lung cancer—the rapid growth of abnormal cells in the lung—is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. In the United States, the disease kills more people each year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer combined.
The good news is that it's also one of the most preventable forms of cancer. The biggest way to reduce your lung-cancer risk? Don't smoke (in the United States, smoking is estimated to account for 87 percent of cases). Here, a look at the disease by the numbers.
213,380: Estimated number of Americans diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, according to the National Cancer Institute.
15 billion: Approximate number of cigarettes sold worldwide each day, according the World Health Organization.
23.4: Estimated percentage of American men who smoke.
18.5: Estimated percentage of American women who smoke.
51: Age of former Marlboro Man Wayne McLaren when he died of lung cancer in 1992.
1977: The year the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, went nationwide. Held on the third Thursday of November, the event encourages smokers to kick the habit for 24 hours.
1 to 2: Milligrams of nicotine ingested by inhaling smoke from one cigarette.
More than 60: Number of carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) present in tobacco and tobacco smoke.
67: Percentage of adult smokers who say they wish they could quit.
10 to 15: Years after quitting smoking that the risk of dying prematurely becomes similar to that of a person who never smoked.
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