PENNYSYLVANIA NEEDS MORE LUNG CANCER RESEARCH

Key Advocate Testifies Before PA Department of Health

Harrisburg, PA [September 19, 2007]--Yesterday, Jack Hill, MD, a retired medical oncologist testified on behalf of Lung Cancer Alliance before the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH).  Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Pennsylvania--killing more Pennsylvanians than breast, prostate, and colon cancers--combined. 

“Lung cancer remains the most under-funded and under-researched of all the major cancers,” Hill said, noting that while other major cancers have experienced a dramatic increase in five year survival rates, lung cancer’s low five year survival rate has remained unchanged for forty years.

In asking the Health Research Committee of DOH to make lung cancer research a funding priority, Dr. Hill said over half of new lung cancers are occurring in former smokers, many who quit decades ago, or in people who never smoked at all.  An estimated 8,000 men and women will die this year of lung cancer in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hill is a former chair of the Department of Medicine at Western Pennsylvania Hospital and a former member of the clinical faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and the Temple Schools of Medicine.  He lost his non-smoking daughter to lung cancer.

Lung Cancer Alliance (www.LungCancerAlliance.org) is the only national non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to patient support and advocacy for people living with, or at risk for, lung cancer.  As the number one cancer killer, lung cancer will kill more than 160,000 Americans this year alone, causing more deaths than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney cancers and melanoma combined.

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