These statements may not be breaking news for oncologists and other physicians, who should have been aware of the lethal nature of cigarette smoking at least since the publication of the first Surgeon General’s report on Smoking and Health more than half a century ago. While the report generated front page headlines and led the network newscasts back in January 1964, the tobacco epidemic has continued, causing more than 20 million deaths in the U.S. in the decades since. Cigarette companies have persisted in using their legal, marketing, and propaganda tools to mislead and addict millions of consumers, including underage youth, for the sole purpose of increasing profits.
The nagging pain in Mia Sandino’s right knee set in in September 2018, and throughout her freshman year at the University of Washington, she tried to ignore it. “I was being a very naive and invincible-feeling 19-year-old,” Sandino told The Cancer Letter. “I didn’t put two and two together that this area of the knee that...
