Wake Forest Cancer Challenge

With over 160,000 new cases being diagnosed this year alone, lung cancer remains the most common type of cancer in the United States. Despite societal trends towards smoking cessation, diagnosis of lung cancer continues to rise with non-smokers predicted to account for 10% of all new cases—a frightening statistic when the majority of all lung cancers cannot be cured with surgery either because the cancer is too advanced or because the patient will be unable to tolerate the removal of part of the lung. For this reason, among others, it is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of lung cancer patients will succumb to their disease within the first five years after diagnosis.

Due in part to the stigma associated with smoking and the low survival rate, lung cancer has historically held limited appeal for patient advocacy. In turn, funding for lung cancer research continues to lag behind other diseases both in terms of total dollar amount and amount per patient afflicted. To help, the Cancer Challenge has pledged to raise $50,000 in support of lung cancer research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University.