How can lung cancer be prevented?

Smoking cessation is the most important measure that can prevent lung cancer. Many products, such as nicotine gum, nicotine sprays, or nicotine inhalers, may be helpful to people trying to quit smoking. Minimizing exposure to passive smoking is also an effective preventive measure. Using a home radon test kit can identify and allow correction of increased radon levels in the home, which can also cause lung cancers. Methods that allow early detection of cancers, such as the helical low-dose CT scan, may also be of value in the identification of small cancers that can be cured by surgical resection and prevention of widespread, incurable metastatic cancer

Definition of lung cancer: Cancer that forms in tissues of the lung, usually in the cells lining air passages. The two main types are small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. These types are diagnosed based on how the cells look under a microscope.

Estimated new cases and deaths from lung cancer (non-small cell and small cell combined) in the United States in 2009:

	New cases: 219,440
	Deaths: 159,390