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Each year, 160,000 Americans die from lung cancer, more than from any other form of the disease. But funding for lung cancer research, $276.5 million last year, was less than half of that for breast cancer. Prostate cancer research got $32 million more than lung cancer.

The message has also changed. Advocates and researchers emphasize that 13 percent of the Americans who die from lung cancer -- and 22 percent of the women -- are not smokers. Besides pointing out that lung cancer afflicts the "innocent," they marshal statistics to show that funding for research into prevention and treatment pales in comparison with cancers that cause fewer deaths.

Researchers also put some blame on themselves for failing to develop a tool that can detect lung cancer early. That would give doctors a better shot at saving victims' lives. But lung cancer has no early warning system comparable to breast cancer's mammogram or prostate cancer's blood test.