November Is Lung Cancer Awareness Month: Progress and Opportunities in Patient Care
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a chance to recognize progress in lung cancer care and the challenges that remain. The National Cancer Institute’s SEER Cancer Stat Facts projects 229,410 new lung and bronchus cancer cases and 124,990 deaths in the United States in 2026—approximately 20% of all cancer deaths. These figures are estimates, not final counts. Five-year relative survival for patients diagnosed during 2016–2022 was 29.5%, a reminder that better outcomes have not eliminated the need for earlier detection and effective treatment. For physicians, November offers a useful opportunity to bring prevention, screening, and advances in care into everyday patient conversations.
One of the clearest advances is that screening can reduce lung cancer deaths, not just find cancer earlier. In the National Lung Screening Trial, 53,454 high-risk participants were randomly assigned to three annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans or chest X-rays. Compared with chest X-rays, LDCT reduced lung cancer mortality by 20.0% (95% confidence interval, 6.8%–26.7%). In absolute terms, NCI describes this as approximately three fewer lung cancer deaths per 1,000 participants over about seven years. Screening also has limitations: false-positive results can lead to additional testing or procedures, some detected cancers may never cause harm, and scans involve radiation exposure. A conversation about these benefits and risks—and a dependable plan for following lung nodules—helps patients understand what screening involves.
Knowing who qualifies for screening can be less straightforward than it sounds because major guidelines differ. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual LDCT for adults without symptoms who are ages 50–80, have at least a 20 pack-year smoking history, and currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years. It recommends stopping screening after 15 years without smoking, or when health problems substantially limit life expectancy or the ability or willingness to undergo curative lung surgery. The American Cancer Society guideline uses the same age and smoking-history thresholds but does not set a cutoff based on years since quitting; health and willingness to receive treatment still matter. Explaining these differences can support a more informed discussion. Patients with symptoms concerning for lung cancer need diagnostic evaluation, rather than screening.
Treatment has also become more individualized, particularly for non–small cell lung cancer. The NCI’s professional treatment summary outlines options that include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. Choosing among them depends on the cancer’s stage and type, molecular test results, and the patient’s circumstances. A 2025 review of targeted therapy describes genetic changes that can guide treatment, including EGFR mutations, ALK and ROS1 fusions, BRAF V600E, MET exon 14 skipping, RET fusions, KRAS G12C, ERBB2 mutations, and NTRK fusions. These findings do not all lead to the same treatment; the specific change and clinical setting matter. Lung adenocarcinoma also occurs in people who have never smoked, an important reminder not to let smoking history alone shape assumptions about a diagnosis or the cancer’s biology.
Even with these advances, connecting patients with available care remains a challenge. The 2026 Annual Report to the Nation’s lung cancer analysis reports that the proportion of eligible adults up to date with screening increased from 3.6% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2024. That is progress, but most eligible adults were still not up to date. November is a practical time to review how smoking histories are documented, whether patients can access screening discussions and scans, and how abnormal results are followed. Support for tobacco cessation remains important alongside screening, while radon and occupational exposures also deserve attention in prevention conversations. Lung Cancer Awareness Month need not mean another message about risk; it can be a chance to make existing evidence more accessible and useful in routine care.