Smoking causes more preventable deaths (from lung cancer, heart and lung disease, other cancers, and chronic illness) than any other single behavioral factor––an estimated 443,000 deaths each year in the United States. The most recent data estimates that about 8,400 Hispanic-Americans were expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009, with the vast majority of these cases caused by smoking.

Lung cancer can be treated, but rarely cured. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Hispanic men and––after breast cancer––the second-leading cause of cancer death in Hispanic women. Hispanics are less likely to develop or die from lung cancer than non-Hispanic whites—but when they are diagnosed they are more likely to be diagnosed with a more serious advanced stage disease.