Don’t lung cancer patients cause their own disease by smoking?
Roughly 10% to 15% of lung cancer patients have never smoked. That means between 20,000 to 30,000 never-smokers are diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States each year. Because the five-year survival for this disease is so poor, each year in the U.S. more never-smokers die of lung cancer than do patients of leukemia, ovarian cancer, or AIDS. Lung cancer patients often feel ostracized, alone, and without the social support that other cancer patients have. Many lung cancer patients who have smoked quit smoking years ago. As many as half of all lung cancers in the U.S. occur in former smokers.5 Although the risk of developing lung cancer does go down with smoking cessation, a significant risk remains for 20 years or longer after quitting.6 Many people who do smoke cigarettes are unjustly blamed for bringing lung cancer upon themselves by “choosing” to smoke. In fact, people rarely choose to begin smoking as mature, educated adults. Instead, people typically begin smoking as teen-age
