• How many people? 155,000 Americans lose their lives to lung cancer each year.
  • The #1 killer. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of both men and women in the U.S. (second only to heart disease in overall cause of death)
  • Research funding needed. Lung cancer receives only $1,831 in federal research funds per death, compared to $4,582 for colorectal cancer and $13,406 for breast cancer.
  • Not just a “smokers’s disease.” Around 70% of lung cancer victims are never-smokers (100 or fewer cigarettes smoked over a lifetime1).
  • Women at greater risk. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women, killing more women each year than breast cancer, uterine cancer, and ovarian cancer combined. Two-thirds of never-smokers who develop lung cancer are women.
  • Lung cancer currently has only a 5-year overall survival rate of 5-20%, shockingly low compared to the next three most common cancers (breast, prostate and colon), which now have 5-year survival rates approaching 80 – 90%, thanks to research funding.
  • Lack of early detection. 41% of patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are not diagnosed until Stage IV.1

EGFR-Positive Lung Cancer

  • Around 15% of all lung cancer patients in the U.S. are diagnosed with EGFR-positive (EGFR+) lung cancer, with prevalence among people of Eastern Asian descent much higher, between 35 – 50%.
  • Never-smokers. Lung cancers in non-smokers and never-smokers are far more likely to express the EGFR+ mutation.
  • Populations at greatest risk. EGFR+ is more common among: never-smokers and non-smokers; women than men; people of East Asian heritage; Caucasians than African Americans; young adults. (Roughly 50% of young adults with lung cancer have EGFR mutations.)
    1. Lovly, C., L. Horn, W. Pao. 2015. EGFR in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). My Cancer Genome https://www.mycancergenome.org/content/disease/lung-cancer/egfr
    2. Zhu QG, Zhang SM, Ding XX, He B, Zhang HQ. Driver genes in non-small cell lung cancer: Characteristics, detection methods, and targeted therapies. Oncotarget. 2017;8(34):57680-57692.

    * Other sources of statistics include: American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute.