Saturday isn’t just the first day of August — it’s also World Lung Cancer Day.

Despite survival rates steadily improving in the U.S., nearly 125,000 people are expected to die from lung cancer this year alone, making it the deadliest cancer.

Over the past five years, the lung cancer survival rate has increased by 26%, but the disease remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among both women and men.

“We still have a ways to go to draw the right awareness around this very deadly and morbid disease,” said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association.

A new national survey by the American Lung Association reveals a critical gap. Only about one-third of those surveyed were aware that quick, low-dose CT scans are available for people at the highest risk of developing the disease.

That’s a growing concern, as catching lung cancer early significantly raises the odds of survival.

“It’s a little challenging to see that it’s so underused and so underutilized,” Galiatsatos said.

Those considered high risk and eligible for screening include smokers between the ages of 50 and 80 with a 20 pack-year smoking history — such as smoking one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years — as well as former heavy smokers who quit within the past 15 years.

“We have a good deal of patients who are very not forthcoming to their doctors to say that they actively still smoke, because they don’t want to be judged or shamed,” Galiatsatos said.

Experts say smoking stigma is part of the problem. They also note that lung cancer screening is relatively new, having only been recommended since 2013. The scan does not require an IV or contrast and takes less than a minute to complete.

“It probably takes longer to fill out the forms for the lung cancer screening than it does to actually get the test done,” Galiatsatos said.

While lung cancer screening is currently only recommended for current or former smokers, experts say more people who have never smoked are being diagnosed with the disease.

They say talking to a doctor about your risk factors is important, including whether you have a family history of lung cancer or have received radiation therapy for other cancers.

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