NCI Announces Integrated Implementation Plan to Fight Lung Cancer

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) today announced an integrated effort to reduce the suffering and death due to lung cancer by 2015. Each year, 160,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with lung cancer, making it the number one cause of cancer deaths in this country. This initiative further supports the NCI mission to reduce the suffering and death due to all cancers by 2015.

The primary cause of lung cancer is tobacco smoke. "If we are going to be serious about improving health and preventing disease, we must continue to drive down tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke in this country," said Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

However, smoking is not the sole cause of lung cancer. Other environmental threats and factors play a role in its development. "Reducing the burden of lung cancer is absolutely essential to achieving our overall 2015 goal," said NCI Director Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D.

As part of this integrated implementation plan, three critical strategies will be targeted:
Reducing the risk for lung cancer by achieving

more effective tobacco control

Improving the likelihood of a cure...

Introduction of novel targeted therapies...

Specific recommendations made by NCI's I-2 team...:

Cessation: Blah
Early Detection: Blah
New Drug Development and Response to Therapy: And Blah

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"However, smoking is not the sole cause of lung cancer."

However, it's the only cause of lung cancer they mention.

I'm getting sick and tired of these people failing to ever say what other factors play a role in lung cancer development. The only reason I can think of is so the spotlight stays only on smoking and secondhand smoke. Uncle Herman smokes and dies from lung cancer; Smoking killed him. Uncle Herman doesn't smoke and dies from lung cancer; Secondhand smoke killed him.

What are the other factors? How are people (especially smokers) supposed to protect themselves from these other factors when they never mention them?

"If we are going to be serious about improving health and preventing disease, we must continue to drive down tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke in this country,"

Yeah, and what else???