SAN FRANCISCO, May 13 PRNewswire Lung cancer, the leading cancer killer of both men and women, is seriously underreported when compared to other major cancers, according to a study being presented on Sunday, May 13, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In an analysis of 600 randomly selected cancer stories that appeared in the news media between August 1999 and July 2000, only 9 percent focused on lung cancer outside of tobacco and smoking issues while 61 percent reported on breast cancer, 23 percent on prostate, and 17 percent on colorectal cancer. The results of this study are stunning, especially since more Americans die each year of lung cancer than from breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined, says Diane Blum, Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, Cancer Care, Inc. Lung cancer patients are being abandoned. Even when there are the rare articles about lung cancer, they focus on tobacco and smoking while stories about other cancers give solid information on treatment, research and detection. Advances in lung cancer are being made we need to communicate these to the news media so patients and those at risk can learn he latest information.

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