November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. One in 16 people who smoke cigarettes will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and while smoking greatly increases your lung cancer risk, many people who have never smoked also get the disease. Lung cancer develops when cancerous cells grow and multiply in the lungs or in the air tubes that lead to them (bronchi). Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women. “The problem with lung cancer is that often when it’s present in its earliest stage, people don’t have much in the way of symptoms at all,” said Dr. Todd Freudenberger, pulmonologist at Overlake Medical Center and Clinics. “It’s only when it becomes more advanced that they start to develop symptoms.” Symptoms can include a cough that doesn’t go away, chest pain, coughing up blood, unexplained weight loss, repeatedly getting pneumonia or bronchitis and bone pain. Smoking is the biggest risk factor for lung cancer, and the more you smoke, the greater your risk is. “The good news there, though, is if you stop smoking, then your risk for lung cancer goes way down,” Dr. Freudenberger said. Lung cancer outcomes greatly improve if it’s detected early. That’s why it’s important to get regularly screened if you’re at risk for the disease. “What we want to do is screen people,” Dr. Freudenberger said. “We want to catch the cancer when it’s still early and people don’t have symptoms.” Overlake Cancer Center follows the latest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which recommends that you undergo lung cancer screening every year if: You’re between 50 and 80 years old, in relatively good health and: You smoke or have quit smoking within 15 years You smoked for at least 20 “pack years.” To figure out your pack years, multiply the number of packs you smoked per day by the number of years that you smoked. “I think we’d like to normalize it (lung cancer screening) to make it feel like every other kind of screening procedure,” Dr. Freudenberger said. To get more information about lung cancer and how to get screened, visit the Overlake Medical Center website. Sponsored by Overlake Medical Center. Segment Producer Joseph Suttner. Watch New Day Northwest 11 a.m. weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.