In 2004, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. That day, I joined the other 1.5 million people personally affected by this cancer. It would come to redefine my life in more ways than one. But thanks to a to a team of nurses and doctors, countless radiation and chemotherapy treatments, procedures and a 14-hour surgery, I became a lung cancer survivor.
My story is common. While lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer, our chances of survival are increasing.Lung cancer death rates declined 45 percent from 1990 to 2015 among men and 19 percent from 2002 to 2015 among women. A concerted focus on prevention efforts and ever-widening treatment options have helped bring hope to patients and their families.