This blog post highlights some of the reasons the stigma of lung cancer persists. Very well written, and worth the read.
Update July 2, 2020:
My original post was a reblog of a Nov-2013 cancergeek WordPress blog which has since been deleted. However, its iconic picture was archived by @LungCancerFaces (Deana Hendrickson) on Twitter.
The picture, which compares Googled images of “breast cancer people” (on the left) vs “lung cancer people” (on the right), clearly shows that lung cancer has an image problem. Breast cancer has smiling faces, pink ribbons, and throngs of supporters. Lung cancer has images of diseased lungs, dying people, and smoking. In many people’s minds, “lung cancer” equals “smoking.” This clearly captures the stigma the lung cancer community faces. This stigma has stifled research funding, fueled physician nihilism, impeded good patient care, and inhibited community and family support of lung cancer patients.
Cancergeek, the author of the original blog post, wrote a Medium article a year later that carried much of the same sentiment.
{I will preface this post by saying that anyone that is diagnosed with cancer has their world changed forever. The clock begins to tick, world closes in on you, and your world is changed in a way that will never be the same. I am being provocative. I am challenging.}
For those of you that I have had the privilege of meeting, and for those of you I have not met, you know and will come to find that cancer is the story of my life. It is what I have dedicated my professional career to try and make an impact. I am fortunate enough to be able to combine my passion, my talent, and my wisdom all into one single focus.
In October I made a commitment to wear a bow tie the same color of the cancer awareness for that specific month. October was easy, it was Breast…
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Gray Connections 
EXCELLENT article. Thank you for posting the link.
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Such a good article, and so important to spread the word. I put a link to it in a post on my SFF.net newsgroup and am posting the link to Twitter, too.
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Again, thank you for reposting. I am glad I could write something that provides value to you, to your tribe, and to others that see this as important. It is all about our stories collectively and amplifying them to make an impact. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Andy
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Wow! Great article.
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