It strikes me as 
ironic, that I’m trying to read up as much about cancer after finding out that another loved one has been diagnosed with the same disease as the one who succumbed to it a couple of years ago.This is so extremely sad, that the only thing I can think of that might cheer up my relatives closer to home, is by making a totally absurd statement, in the style you should be oh-so familiar with by now:
Hey! Maybe this thing will outgrow our family!
Having said that, the Wikipedia article on lung cancer is extremely well versed and highly informative. The state of cancer research? It’s the pits: if I have to believe the numbers in the news there is a greater chance of being killed by a terrorist (that other tumor as others call it) than being outrun by a virus, or, in this case, outgrown by malignant cells. In reality, of course, 7.6 million people died of cancer last year alone. According to my rusty statistics, that’s 1 out of 870 (world census).
Update: Wait, just today a study shows that breast cancer rates dropped recently because millions of women stopped or abandoned hormone treatment after a study concluded that the hormones slightly increased breast cancer risks.