October 27, 2006

Screening and evaluation  

This is encouraging; it's nice to see that someone is actually thinking about early detection for this disease.

Someone close to me has gone through diagnosis and treatment for lung cancer this year, and I've really been struck by the extent to which this disease seems to get second billing to other forms of cancer, despite its lethality. Of course, this probably has something to do with the fact that lung cancer is associated with smoking; it's amazing how many people, on hearing about a diagnosis, ask "Did X smoke?" -- as though somehow that would determine their reaction. They should know that a surprisingly large number of lung cancer patients are not smokers, and that there are other significant risk factors. (They should probably also reexamine their attitudes and sympathies with respect to smokers).

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