Midwestern states have a mixed record on fighting lung cancer, according to a new report

Missouri and Iowa show little progress in cutting their rates of new cancer cases, according to the latest American Lung Association report. Nebraska and Kansas saw rates of new cases remain below or at the national average.
Sara Geiken, 43, remembers the first time she felt the pain of her lung cancer after a workout class in 2019.

“I thought I had pulled a muscle,” she said.

Geiken, who had been involved with the American Lung Association in Iowa for nearly ten years as a volunteer, was at low risk for lung cancer.So, when a doctor diagnosed her with adenocarcinoma, which starts in glands that line the insides of the organs, she was caught off-guard.