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In celebration of Lung Cancer Awareness Month this November, studies, awareness activities and new health discoveries have been initiated to shed light in this fatal disease said to have caused the most number of cancer deaths in the US.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via WGEM, there are about 200,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the U.S with its death toll reaching to more than 150,000 every year.

Despite the growing rate of lung cancer cases, Blessing Cancer Center officials still said that it is the most-often treated type of cancer. The organization further pointed out that tobacco smoking is the leading cause of the disease.

This, however, does not exempt non-smokers from contacting the disease as it was reported that more than 7,000 people die every year because of secondary smoking.

This has been the case of Dr. Karen Ascott, a two-time lung cancer survivor and organizer of the Shine a Light on Lung Cancer held at the Lackawanna County Courthouse on Thursday night, The Times Tribune said.

"Now what's happening is the fastest-growing demographic of lung cancer patients are young people who have never smoked," Dr. Ascott said about her experience being a non-smoker physician who was diagnosed with lung cancer 10 years ago.

"The main risk factor for lung cancer is having lungs...Anybody can get lung cancer, whether you smoked or didn't smoke," she further said.

This year, Dr. Ascott and other organizers decided to make sharing about lung cancer 'a more personal event' by allowing patients and survivors talk about their experiences rather than the customary information drive by physicians in the previous years.

Meanwhile, The American Lung Association will hold its annual Lung Force Walk on Sunday, November 8 in Ontario, The Press Enterprise reported.

The activity is said to promote awareness of lung cancer among women, policy changes in health care and increase of research funding about lung cancer.