November · Lung Cancer Awareness Month
Lung Cancer Awareness
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer — and screening and quitting smoking both save lives.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, but two things change the odds dramatically: quitting smoking (at any age) and low-dose CT screening for people at higher risk. This guide collects the site's plain-language articles on lung cancer risk, quitting, and screening.
Five things to remember
- Quitting smoking is the single biggest step to lower lung cancer risk — and it's never too late to benefit.
- If you're 50 to 80 with a 20 pack-year smoking history, ask your doctor about yearly low-dose CT screening.
- Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in people who never smoked — a cheap home test can find it.
- There is no safe level of secondhand smoke; smoke-free homes and cars protect everyone.
- E-cigarette aerosol is not harmless water vapor.
Know the risk
What causes lung cancer — tobacco, radon, and secondhand smoke.
Cancer Types
What Is Lung Cancer?
A plain-language overview of lung cancer, its two main types, and its main cause, based on National Cancer Institute resources.
5 min read · Beginner
Prevention & Risk
Tobacco and Cancer: How Smoking Harms the Body
How tobacco use causes many types of cancer, the harmful chemicals involved, and the benefits of not smoking, based on NCI, CDC, and ACS resources.
8 min read · Beginner
Prevention & Risk
Radon and Cancer Risk
A plain-language explainer on radon, an invisible gas that is the second leading cause of lung cancer, including how to test your home and reduce levels, based on National Cancer Institute, EPA, and CDC resources.
6 min read · Beginner
Prevention & Risk
Secondhand Smoke and Cancer Risk
What secondhand smoke is, how it causes lung cancer in nonsmokers, and why there is no safe level of exposure, based on NCI, CDC, and ACS resources.
7 min read · Beginner
Lower your risk
Quitting works, and support doubles your chances of success.
Prevention & Risk
Quitting Smoking: Benefits and Ways to Get Help
The health benefits of quitting smoking over time and the proven ways to quit, including counseling, quitlines, and medicines, based on NCI, CDC, and ACS resources.
8 min read · Beginner
Prevention & Risk
E-Cigarettes and Cancer: What We Know So Far
A careful look at e-cigarettes and vaping, nicotine, the uncertain long-term cancer risk, and concerns about youth use, based on CDC and NCI resources.
8 min read · Beginner
Prevention & Risk
Smokeless Tobacco: Not a Safe Alternative
How smokeless tobacco like chew, snuff, and dip raises the risk of oral and other cancers, and why it is not a safe substitute for smoking, based on NCI, CDC, and ACS resources.
7 min read · Beginner
Get screened if you qualify
Yearly low-dose CT screening finds lung cancer early, when it's most treatable.
Screening
Lung Cancer Screening with Low-Dose CT
A plain-language guide to lung cancer screening with low-dose CT — who it's for, its benefits and harms — based on National Cancer Institute resources.
5 min read · Intermediate
Screening
The Benefits and Harms of Cancer Screening: Why It Is a Balance
A plain-language look at the benefits and harms of cancer screening, from early detection to false positives and overdiagnosis, and why screening is a balance, grounded in National Cancer Institute guidance.
7 min read · Beginner
Take it further
Guidance on this page is based on National Cancer Institute, CDC, American Cancer Society, and USPSTF recommendations. It is educational only and is not medical advice.