Candlelight vigil Nov. 4 to raise awareness about lung cancer
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Upstate Medical University faculty, staff and students will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday, Nov. 4 to "Shine a Light on Lung Cancer."
The vigil will take place at 6 p.m. outside Upstate University Hospital's entrance, 750 E. Adams Street.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, claiming more lives then breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.
The vigil is supported by Upstate's Colleges Against Cancer chapter, which joins more than 60 other groups in 30 states to help the Lung Cancer Alliance, a non-profit organization for people with lung cancer and those at risk, raise awareness of the disease.
The vigil will include remarks from various Upstate physicians and staff members as well as personal reflections from individuals whose lives have been touched by lung cancer, such as Jeanmarie Glasser, assistant director of the Upstate Cancer Center, who lost her father to lung cancer 31 years ago. He lived with lung cancer for 13 months.
"Given the treatments and clinical drug trials available today, I believe my dad would have lived longer and perhaps beaten the odds," Glasser said. "He never saw me graduate from college, or walked me down the aisle or held his grandchildren. We need to do all we can through more research and greater awareness to ensure that dads are there for these special moments."
Lung cancer mainly occurs in older people. About 2 out of 3 people diagnosed with lung cancer are older than 65; fewer than 3 percent of all cases are found in people younger than 45. The average age at the time of diagnosis is about 71.
Overall, the chance that a man will develop lung cancer in his lifetime is about 1 in 13; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 16. These numbers include both smokers and non-smokers. For smokers the risk is much higher, while for non-smokers the risk is lower.
Upstate will break ground this fall on a new $74 million cancer center that that will bring all of the university's outpatient cancer services-pediatric and adult-under one roof.