ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Epidemiology (1,2) Lung cancer is the most frequent form of cancer to be diagnosed in humans and is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. In the United States, it is the second leading cause of cancer in both men and women, and is the number one cause of cancer-related mortality. The National Cancer Institute’s (1) estimated new lung cancer cases (both small cell and non-small cell) in the United States in 2008 is 215,020, with the estimated number of deaths attributed to lung cancer to be 161,840. The incidence is higher in men than women, but while the incidence rates of lung cancer among men have dropped by 2.5% since 1973, the incidence was increasing among women until recently. The latest Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data show that, for the first time since the data has been collected, the incidence rate of women has dropped (from 1998 to 2005). Concomitantly, mortality rates have been increasing in women more than men, but these rates are also dropping for both.
