Introduction from Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube:
In 2022, our former CEO Susan Wojcicki learned she had lung cancer. For two years, she fought cancer the same way she lived the rest of her life – with hope, a curiosity to learn, and a determination to scale research efforts that could save lives.
Through Susan, I learned that lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in women. She wanted to change those odds.
Susan wrote a post in the final weeks of her life that she planned to publish this fall.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and we’re taking this opportunity to carry on Susan’s mission to help others by publishing her blog. You can read her thoughts below, and learn more about lung cancer at Stand Up To Cancer.
At the end of 2022, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had almost no symptoms and was running a few miles a day at the time. I had never smoked so I was totally shocked with this diagnosis.
My life changed dramatically after that day. I decided to resign from my role as CEO of YouTube, to focus on my health and my family. I was able to live an almost normal life, thanks to modern medicine. I continued to serve on boards: Salesforce, Planet Labs and Waymo, as well as on nonprofit boards like Room to Read and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). But most of my time shifted to focus on cancer research.
Before my diagnosis, my husband and I had already been actively supporting cancer research and new technologies like genetic sequencing and data science, with the hope of shedding light on new cures. After my diagnosis, we stepped up our efforts as we quickly learned lung cancer was under researched and misunderstood. We have since given millions of dollars to support early detection research, new immunotherapy options that could cure cancer, building a community of genotyped patients to better understand the disease, and fundamental research to better understand the mechanisms and science behind the cancers.
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I plan to continue to spend my time and resources investing in future cures for cancer. Especially lung cancer.
It is not well known that lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in women and the second most common cancer in women. Although lung cancer overall is decreasing because of declines in tobacco use, lung cancer among people who have never smoked has been rising significantly, and two-thirds of people diagnosed lung cancer with no smoking history are women.
Despite lung cancer being the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., it’s significantly underfunded. Lung cancer receives $4,438 per death in NIH research funding, whereas breast cancer receives $19,869, prostate $9,135, colorectal $7,565, and pancreatic $5,932 (source). I plan to raise awareness and fight for more resources for lung cancer patients overall.
Having cancer hasn’t been easy. As a person I have changed a lot, and probably the most important lesson I have learned is just to focus and enjoy the present! Life is unpredictable for everyone, with many unknowns, but there is a lot of beauty in everyday life. My goals going forward are to enjoy the present as much as possible and fight for better understanding and cures for this disease.
— Susan