LCA News:

LCA Board Chairman, Rear Admiral Philip J. Coady, USN (Ret.) Writes Open Letter to Veterans

November 12, 2007

Dear Fellow Veterans,

As a longtime VSO and lung cancer patient, I am concerned with the risk of all Veterans at risk for this disease. Lung cancer kills more Americans than the next five cancers combined. This is a stealth cancer that usually take decades to develop. By the time most symptoms become apparent, the disease is already at late stage and most die within a year of diagnosis.

Veterans, for a host of reasons, die of lung cancer at a greater rate than their fellow Americans who did not serve. Over 50% of new lung cancer cases are being diagnosed in former smokers and another 15% in people, like me, who have never smoked. The stigma and blame associated with smoking have resulted in a massive underfunding of research in the disease itself. While the other major cancers such as breast, prostate, and colon cancers now have 5 year survival rates of 88%, 99%, and 65% respectively, lung cancer’s 5 year survival rate is still only 15%.

This year for the first time the Independent Budget presented to Congress by VSOs laid out the toll lung cancer is taking on veterans and called for more research and an early detection program at the VA.

Lung Cancer Alliance is proud to work with Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, AMVETS, Vietnam Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, and Military Officers Association of America to make lung cancer research and early detection a public health priority.

RADM Philip J. Coady, USN Ret.

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Lung Cancer Alliance