Lung Cancer
There is a 1/19 chance you will die of lung cancer. That's certainly high enough to take seriously. Lung is the #1 cancer killer.
The NYT just had an article saying half the people diagnosed with lung cancer never see a oncologist, they just die. If they had caught the cancer early 5 year survival is in the high 60s. A Low Dose CT (LDCT)scan will show it easily in early stages. Insist that your doc give you one, or just get one, they cost under $200, get one every year.
They have criterion for getting the scan like,,,, must have smoked a pack a day for 20 years and quit within 15 years and be under 81 years old. They worry about excess radiation giving cancer, or false positives, or cancer that never develops. Etc etc etc. I worry about lung cancer, a lot more.
I'm not excitable, I don't worry about false positives etc, that's for the doc to asses. I once had a tumor on my arm bone, first they did ultrasound and they found another tumor right under it. They they did a CT scan, and liked it even less, so they operated, cut it out and took a sample. Nothing. Without a positive biopsy it's just not worth getting excited.
Costs are high. If you have insurance get a scan. Living the estra 5 years then dying will cost you hundreds of thousands, better to catch it early, pay much less, and live. Average age of diagnosis is 70, that probably has a lot to do with people not bothering with an oncologist.
There are many different types of lung cancers, and they are coming up with new and effective methods of targeting specific cancers based on the genetics of the actual cancer itself. AI can't come soon enough in cancer research.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/lung-cancer/about/key-statistics.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/well/metastatic-lung-cancer-study.htm...
Photo of hammer and sicle I know many here like that kind of thing.
Comments
I was going to front page...
this essay, until the hammer and sickle thing, that's just a low grade, sophomoric cheap shot.
I understand that trolling is your forte, but by current standards, you're lacking in skills and maybe you should rethink your method of baiting and antagonizing, because, we here at c99, just point and laugh at your feeble attempts at getting under our skin.
By the way, one of the hallmarks of a troll, is a lack of editing skills, you exhibit that in spades.
Try harder, you'll be more entertaining that way.
PS: I'm currently a cancer patient, I'll be expounding on that very soon. You made good points about lung cancer, but gave away your modus operandi with the commie comment, which highlights your total lack of understanding of this community.
@JtC Was looking for a photo
Was looking for a photo from my old ones. I think that's called the Ta Duah crossing or something. I'ts in a place where the Mekong runs down interior Laos instead of being the Thai/Lao border. Xayabouli province. It's the old escape route for Hmong headed over to Thai refugee camps.
One of the few places I saw where the alternative language was French on signage. One of the few places too where I was given the hairy eyeball from the police at the crossing. No idea what kind of police but uniformed anyway. No big smiles from those guys.
Thanks for the kind words on the story and get well.
Nope.
Day late, and a dollar short.
And have a nice day.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
@usefewersyllables Sorry, I've no idea
Sorry, I've no idea who you are. I'm pretty sure I've interacted with JTC before. I have a real hard time getting angry at people I don't notice. Good luck to you.
That's all fine and dandy...
even though that photo appears to be from India (look at the trucks) and not from Ta Duah, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
But, I have to ask, why did you associate that photo of the sickle and hammer with the "many here" at c99?
Are we your enemy?
@JtC Actually I have
Actually I have family that are party members, well one passed on from old age but the other is at the embassy in Holland or Denmark or something. Of course communism as practiced in the remaining 3 or 5 countries is different than reflexive anti Americanism, or more specifically support of repressive regimes of the former soviet union or china..
I've never been to India, not sure why you think I'd post a photo and say it was something else.
I've never forgiven tobacco for killing my grandmother
Accordingly, I've never gone anywhere near it.
Not a fan of cannabis either, unfortunately I have a relative who smokes that constantly due to ruinous IBS; I have heard...conflicting accounts as to whether that poses a similar danger.
I was never the world's best brother, but one of my most satisfactory moments was when my little brother and I were in a hotel room together and he was smoking a pack of cigarettes on the terrace or whatever you call it (our parents were indulging it at the time because they thought it was better than the more reckless "medicine-cabinet Viking" drug-addict behavior he'd fallen to at the time); I went out to join him and casually asked if I could see the pack in an 'implied desire to share' sort of way; probably expecting a "bonding moment", he passed them over with minimal comment.
Then I chucked them over the balcony into the night, and told him my frank opinion of our parents' indulgence of this.
My favorite part, of that incident, though, is the part where I imagine some sweaty young couple by the pool below that night, and one says 'Wow, I sure could go for a cigarette right now....'
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!