Why Even Non-Smokers Are at Risk for Lung Cancer

By Jennifer D'Angelo Friedman, SELF magazine

When Arielle Densen's mother -- a lifelong non-smoker -- was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in 2010, Densen, 27, was shocked by how little people know about the disease. So she decided to get the message out.

Related: 21 Good-For-You Snacks

This month -- which happens to be National Lung Cancer Awareness Month -- Densen and her father launched Leaders of the Lung Cancer Free World, an advocacy campaign that brings together some of the leading lung cancer organizations in an effort to focus public attention on the disease.

"This year, lung cancer will kill about 80 percent more women than breast cancer," according to the American Cancer Society's 2011 Facts & Figures report, she says. (Breast cancer is expected to kill an estimated 39,520 women and lung cancer is expected to kill an estimated 71,340 women.) "It's unbelievable that this is not on our radar screen."

And while most of us know that smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer, only 7 percent of Americans -- including only 8 percent of women -- know lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of women, according to a national survey conducted for Leaders of the Lung Cancer Free World by GfK Roper Public Affairs.

See more: Fitness Forecast: 2012's Hottest Trends

Densen also believes that lung cancer is stigmatized due to its association with smoking.

"When I tell people my mom has lung cancer, their first question is, 'Did she smoke?' Not, 'How is she doing?' like you would ask for any other cancer," she says.

But 20 percent of women diagnosed with lung cancer never smoked (including "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve's widow Dana Reeve, who died of lung cancer at age 44 in 2006), according to a Brigham and Women's Hospital report. Approximately 20,000-25,000 people who have never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer in the U.S. each year; more than 60 percent are women, according to the report. Sixty percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer are non-smokers, a population that includes people who have never smoked as well as former smokers. And the disease now claims the lives of more women each year than breast, ovarian and cervical cancers combined, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance.

Related:12 Ways to Think Yourself Slim

Obviously, if you smoke, you should quit now to reduce your risk. But Densen warns that if you have a persistent, nagging cough that won't go away -- like her mom did -- it may be worth getting it checked out.

More from SELF:

• 20 Superfoods for Weight Loss
• Yoga Moves for Flat Abs
• 38 Antiaging Foods
• Gwyneth Paltrow's Arm and Ab Workout

Photo Credit: Condé Nast Digital Studio