BOSTON -- Hearing the word cancer strikes fear in nearly everyone. Most women dread breast cancer, but lung cancer is the deadliest enemy for women and men. The stunning reality is it's no longer a smoker's disease as many families are learning the hard way.

NewsCenter 5 anchor Heather Unruh's mother Dee was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago.

"I felt I needed to prop you two up. And your dad," Dee said about the day she had to tell her daughters and husband what the doctors had found.

The news was especially stunning because Dee Unruh does not smoke.

"There is a stigma. No matter what. And the first question people always ask is, 'Do you smoke?' or they'd say, 'But you don't smoke,'" she said.

Neither do 60 percent of new patients, experts said.

"It's becoming a very big epidemic among non-smoking women," said Dr. Jeffrey Engleman of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.

What hasn't changed is that 85 percent do not survive. The mortality rate has not changed in 40 years.

"Most lung cancers are diagnosed when they're already advanced," said Engleman.

Unlike breast, colon and prostate cancers, there's no screening protocol for lung cancer. A fluke CT scan ordered for something unrelated spotted Dee Unruh's cancer at the earliest stage, when it was operable. But that is rare.

"Everybody should have the chance I got, because ... it's my life. And I sit in the office every three months and wait and see all the other patients come in. And I can tell all the ones that weren't as lucky as me," she said.

Breakthroughs are happening in Boston, but not soon enough for most. The average lung cancer patient lives only one year.

"The progress we've made in the past five years is probably more important than the progress we've made in the previous 80 years," Engleman said.

A slice of Dee Unruh's cancer has been taken to the Massachusetts General Cancer Center research lab to be tested for some key information that may help her in the future if the cancer returns.

Massachusetts General is using cutting-edge DNA tests to analyze patients' tumors. Some have specific genetic mutations that, when identified, can triple a patient's life span.

"This is the normal peak that we see for this gene B graph and here, in your mother's sample, we actually see a mutation in this gene," said MGH investigator Dr. Daniel Borger, pointing to a computerized graph containing information on Unruh's sample.

That means standard chemotherapy may not be necessary. There are other options, such as a pill that has no side effects, which is capable of melting away tumors. It only works, however, when a specific genetic mutation is found. Doctors said all lung cancer patients should probably have their tumors tested, Engleman said.

A Chronicle Special Report entitled "Deadliest Enemy" will air Tuesday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m.