BATON ROUGE — Hundreds of white flags were planted in front of the Louisiana State Capitol on Wednesday to honor those lost to lung cancer over the last year. 

In total, 500 flags were planted, with each flag representing five lives lost to lung cancer. 

The installation was coordinated by the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative at LSU in partnership with the LUNGevity Foundation. The flags will remain on display for five days.

Organizers said they hope the display reminds the public that anyone with lungs can get lung cancer and highlights the life-saving importance of early detection and screenings. 

Educational signage with statistics, like how one in every five cancer deaths is due to lung cancer, will also be posted.

Louisiana ranks among the lowest in the nation when it comes to outcomes for lung cancer, including ranking 40th in the rate of new cases, 43rd in the survival rate and 42nd in early diagnoses.