Nathan Pennell, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Medical Oncology at Bristol Myers Squibb, shared on LinkedIn:
“When I started my career in medicine, lung cancer was a disease people rarely talked about. While that has changed, awareness is still nowhere near where it should be for the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and worldwide.
This week, on our Princeton, NJ campus, our thoracic team planted 1,250 white flags with the LUNGevity Foundation as part of Every Breath Forward, a nationwide movement to honor those lost to lung cancer and unite communities in advancing progress. Each flag represents 100 people across the country who will lose their lives to lung cancer this year – a total of 125,000 Americans.
We did this to take a symbol of loss and turn it into something that catalyzes hope. Because the gap in awareness runs both ways: some people underestimate how dangerous lung cancer is, and others don’t know how much progress has been made. Thanks to research, more people are now living longer, and better, than ever before.
But too many are still diagnosed at a stage when the disease is harder to treat. So, here’s my ask. If the images I’ve shared below stay with you, let them start a conversation. Think of someone in your life who might benefit from a lung cancer screening and encourage them to talk with their healthcare provider about it. That one conversation is where early detection begins.
Thank you to the colleagues who gave their time and care to this project, and to LUNGevity for their relentless advocacy for the lung cancer community.”
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