With Halloween just behind us and Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of weeks, it might be easy to forget that November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

We hope you will not.

Lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, is the second most common form of cancer in men and women, with only prostate cancer being more common in men and breast cancer more common in women. Estimates are that 234,580 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed this year (118,270 of which will be in women and 116,310 in men) and, sadly, that there will be 125,070 deaths due to lung cancer this year (65,790 of which will be men and 59,280 will be women.)

In our Tri-State Area, it is estimated there will be 11,200 new cases diagnosed in Pennsylvania this year and 5,720 deaths. In Ohio, estimates are there will be 10,390 new cases diagnosed and 5,670 deaths. And in West Virginia, it is estimated there will be 2,150 new cases diagnosed and 1,220 deaths.

Do the math: It adds up to 653 people in the United States being diagnosed each day. That’s about 27 people each hour, or one every two and a half minutes.

There are numerous risk factors for the disease, the cancer society reports, including smoking, exposure to second-hand smoke, exposure to radon, exposure to asbestos, exposure to other cancer-causing agents in the workplace, air pollution, certain dietary supplements and arsenic in the drinking water. Overall, there is a 1 in 16 chance a man will develop lung cancer in his lifetime. For women, it’s about a 1 in 17 chance.

Awareness is especially critical to residents of the Tri-State Area. According to the American Lung Association, while the national rate of new cases per 100,000 residents is 54.6, West Virginia ranks 47th among all states with a rate of 76.1 new cases per 100,000 residents. Ohio is 42nd with a rate of 65.1 new cases and Pennsylvania is 33rd with a rate of 60.

The five-year survival rate for lung cancer in the United States is 26.6 percent. In Ohio it is 24.4 percent — 30th among the 42 states that report that data. Pennsylvania is 10th with a survival rate of 28.8 percent and West Virginia is 37th with a survival rate of 22.4 percent.

Numbers also show that while the national rate for lung cancers caught at an early stage is 26.6 percent, the rate is West Virginia is 26.8 percent (24th among the 47 states with that data) , the rate in Pennsylvania is 27.3 percent (20th among the states with data) and the rate in Ohio is 26.6 percent (26th among the states with that data.)

Tobacco use has been identified as the leading risk factor for lung cancer, with cigarette smoking linked to between 80 percent to 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Numbers from the American Lung Association show that an estimated 11.5 percent of U.S. adults currently smoke cigarettes. West Virginia’s rate is 21 percent, Ohio’s rate is 17.1 percent and Pennsylvania’s rate is 14.9 percent.

Those are sobering numbers, and they offer reasons for area residents to be aware of the dangers and take steps which can help stop the deadly disease.