AARP Purpose Prize Fellow Bonnie J. Addario

By Linda Childers  

In 2004, Bonnie J. Addario received a devastating diagnosis. Doctors told the 56-year-old married mother of three that she had stage IIIB lung cancer and would die in a matter of months if

she didn’t begin treatment immediately.

Fourteen years later, Addario is cancer-free and leading the fight to help others with the disease. She and her family have founded two nonprofits, beginning with the Bonnie J. Addario Lung

Cancer Foundation (ALCF) in San Carlos, Calif., in 2006. ALCF works with patients and advocates for innovative lung cancer medicines and treatments. The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute

(ALCMI), a global consortium dedicated to driving new studies, was founded in 2008.

At the time of her diagnosis, Addario was at the peak of her career as president of Olympian Oil Company in South San Francisco. Having watched her mother’s sister, brother and father all

battle lung cancer and subsequently succumb to complications of the disease, Addario knew it was a formidable foe.

After undergoing chemotherapy and radiation to shrink her tumor, Addario had surgery to remove it. During her prolonged recovery, she researched lung cancer online and became frustrated at

the lack of information available to lung cancer patients and their families. She also questioned why the survival rates for other types of cancer were so much higher.

“Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, and each year it kills more people than breast, prostate and colorectal cancer combined,” Addario says. “Yet the five-year survival rate for

lung cancer is 55 percent when the disease is still in the lung and 4 percent once it has spread.”

Historically, Addario notes, lung cancer research has lagged behind other forms of cancer, due in part to the misconception that it’s a self-inflicted disease caused by smoking.

“The reality is not all lung cancer patients are smokers, and smoking isn’t the only cause of lung cancer,” Addario says. “Other known causes include exposure to secondhand smoke, air

pollution, radon and asbestos.”