It’s the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.

It’s typically discovered too late to be treated successfully, with about 85 percent of victims dead within five years of diagnosis.

And nine out of 10 cases of the disease are tied to a single behavior — smoking.

Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That’s an average of 439 people a day.

And tobacco caused 90 percent of those deaths, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Quitting smoking also will allow people to avoid the host of other health problems that come with it, most notably cardiovascular disease.

"If you avoid smoking, you have avoided the Mount Everest of avoidable health hazards," says Dr. Michael Thun, VP of epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society.

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