Article from Boston newspaper

[bunny]

American Cancer Society offers support and hope

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Dana Reeve's diagnosis of lung cancer and the passing of Peter Jennings are reminders that people have questions about the disease, and many smokers are looking for ways to quit. The American Cancer Society offers support and hope for people diagnosed with lung cancer and their families as well as resources to help smokers quit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including its own Quitline, which since its launch in May 2000 has provided services to more than 100,000 callers. For more information, call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

According to the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts and Figures 2005, it is estimated that 4,010 new cases of lung and bronchus cancer will be diagnosed in Massachusetts this year, and sadly, close to 3,800 will die. Lung cancer does occur in people who have never smoked, even though cigarette smoking is by far the biggest risk factor for lung cancer in the U.S., causing an estimated 80 percent of lung cancers in women and 90 percent in men.

"The Commonwealth would prevent 34,250 children alive today from starting to smoke and save 10,960 of them from a premature, smoking-caused death if it funded a tobacco prevention and cessation program at minimum levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)," said Anne Kelly Contini, senior vice president for the American Cancer Society in Massachusetts. "While Massachusetts receives more than $700 million in tobacco-related revenue each year, less than one percent of that money is spent on programs that will help people quit smoking and keep kids from ever starting." Once a national model for tobacco control, Massachusetts has stripped funding for tobacco prevention and cessation from $48 million in fiscal year 2002 to merely $4.25 million in the fiscal year 2006 budget. The CDC recommended minimum funding for tobacco prevention in Massachusetts is $35.2 million. The best way for the Commonwealth to help reduce the incidence of lung cancer illness and death is to reinvest in existing, proven tobacco control programs.

"Progress against lung cancer will require further efforts to prevent cigarette smoking as well as advances in early detection and treatment. The good news is per capita consumption is now at the lowest level since World

War II and that lung cancer death rates have fallen 17 percent in men from 1990 to 2002," said Michael J. Thun, MD, the Society's vice president of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research. "With 46 million former smokers in the U.S. and the inevitability that some people who have never smoked will develop lung cancer, continued research into early detection and into ways of improving targeted therapy, which has shown promise in some select groups, remain very important." In New England alone, there is more than $3 million invested in lung cancer research, and nationwide, the American Cancer Society has 73 grants in effect representing an investment of more than $40 million.

Every day, almost 1,200 people die in the United States as a result of tobacco use, and 8.6 million people in this country suffer from smoking related chronic conditions. These illnesses and these premature deaths can be prevented. The single greatest commitment one can make to a life of health is not starting to smoke in the first place. If you are young, don't smoke. If you do, the chances are 1 in 2 that you will die of a disease related to smoking. If you do smoke, stopping can have almost immediate beneficial effects on your health, and over time your risk of developing lung cancer does decrease. For more information on how you can quit smoking, or if you'd like more information on lung cancer, call the American Cancer Society 24 hours, 7 days a week toll-free at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. For more information call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

[dadstimeon]

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