Lung Cancer Awareness

What to know

You can lower your lung cancer risk in several ways.

Don't smoke

Cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer. Smoking causes about 80% of lung cancer deaths in the United States. The most important thing you can do to prevent lung cancer is to not start smoking, or, if you smoke, to quit.

For help quitting, visit smokefree.gov, call 1 (800) QUIT-NOW (784-8669), or text "QUIT" to 47848. It's never too late to quit!

Benefits of Quitting Smoking Over Time

Benefits of Cessation Over Time

Audio Description Low Resolution Video

This animated infographic shows the positive changes the body experiences over time after quitting smoking.

Avoid secondhand smoke

Smoke from other people’s cigarettes, pipes, or cigars is called secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in adults who have never smoked.

Reduce radon in your home if needed

Radon is a gas that you cannot smell, taste, or see. It comes naturally from rocks and soil and can dissolve in groundwater. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States after cigarette smoke.

People can be exposed to radon mainly from breathing radon in air that comes through cracks and gaps in the foundation of buildings and homes. Get your home tested for radon and take steps to reduce the radon level if it is high.

Are You At Risk for Radon?

Are You At Risk For Radon?

Low Resolution Video

This video explains what radon is, how it can enter your home and cause lung cancer, and how to fix a radon problem if needed.

Is lung cancer screening right for you?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends yearly lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for people who:

• Have a 20 pack-year or more smoking history, and
• Smoke now or have quit within the past 15 years, and
• Are between 50 and 80 years old.

A pack-year is smoking an average of one pack of cigarettes per day for 1 year. For example, a person could have a 20 pack-year history by smoking one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years.

Talk to your doctor about your risk of getting lung cancer and the possible risks of screening. If lung cancer screening is right for you, your doctor can refer you to a high-quality screening facility.

Fast facts

• More people in the United States die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer.
• Each year, about 220,000 people in the United States develop lung cancer, and about 132,000 people die from this disease.
• People can have different signs and symptoms for lung cancer. Most people with lung cancer don't have symptoms until the cancer is advanced.

Featured resources

• How did Jackie, who never smoked, develop lung cancer? She is grateful that she found an answer. Read her story.
• Smoking tobacco products causes nearly 9 in 10 cases of lung cancer and can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body.

Where this page came from

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