Caitlin's First Post

Hello, my name is Caitlin Kennedy. I am a Sophomore Biology student here at Santa Clara University. Although cancer has not had much of a direct effect on my family, my best friend from childhood's father battled cancer throughout my youth and recently lost his battle a month ago. Smoking cigarettes causes 90% of the cases of lung cancer and this man was always surrounded by a cloud of smoke. While smoking is the largest Cause of Lung Cancer, there are a few other contributors.

Below is a graph showing the risk in men of developing lung cancer based off how many cigarettes they smoke per day.

You can access more information about this chart at this website.

I also have been very interested in the HPV shots. When I received the set of three shots, the vaccine was still experimental; I have been curious to what it does/prevents ever since. I would really like to work on this topic specifically during my cancer project. A link explaining the purpose of this series of shots given to children is here.