Detecting Lung Cancer Blog

With 2012 right around the corner, it’s that time of year again when people start planning for the future, and getting together their New Year’s Resolutions. According to this article, one of the most popular resolutions is something that ties in with our discussions of lung cancer.

As many people ring in the new year, they vow to ring in a healthier lifestyle – One that involves them breaking the habit, as they vow to stop smoking.

As the number one risk factor for lung cancer, tobacco usage is not only hazardous to your health, it can also take a toll on your time and finances. For more information on how much time and money your smoking habit is taking up, we invite you to try our Time and Cost of Smoking Calculator.

If you just focus on the statistics, lung cancer can be daunting. As the number one cancer killer in the United States, lung cancer claims the lives of more people each year than the next four largest cancer killers, breast, prostate, pancreatic and colon, combined. Even worse, the five-year survival rate is only around 16%, and has remained unchanged for years.

But there is hope.

The holidays can be a wonderful time – Family, friends, food – With so many activities to do, people to see, presents to purchase and dishes to make, it seems like there’s never a dull moment.

With all of the commotion, however, stress can also build up. Even the healthy person tends to experience more stress this type of year, and tries to find ways to cope with it. So what does one do when not only dealing with the stresses of the holidays, but also a much bigger worry – the worry about lung cancer?

It was the summer of 2009 when Barbara was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer.

Barbara was at increased risk of lung cancer due to many risk factors. She had a family history of lung cancer, as her father passed away from the disease. Additionally, she had extensive exposure to different chemicals and radiation in her work environment, and—though she gave up the habit for 10 years which does reduce risk for lung cancer and other diseases—she had been a long term smoker, all of which increased her lung cancer risk factors.

According to Oncimmune's Lung Cancer Risk Calculator, her prior smoking history made her approximately 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer in the next 5 years than someone her age who never smoked.

Stu was tired, just exhausted, all the time. Given the circumstances, it was not a good way to be at all. He was in the Navy, training to be an officer. The year was 1961. Stu was 22 years old.

Life in Newport, Rhode Island, where Stu’s training took place, could be difficult at times. The days were warm enough, but the nights were freezing. He was not getting much sleep, and the training regimen was demanding. After two weeks of feeling miserable, he started coughing up blood and running a high temperature.

The diagnosis was pneumonia, and he was treated for it. Afterward, he felt well enough to finish his training. Home on leave that November, he again fell ill, running a high fever. This time, the doctors found a tumor in his right lung. They told Stu’s wife and mother the tumor was malignant. Stu remained in the dark about his lung cancer.

In the 1960s, there was only one name for all lung cancer, and it was a death sentence. In fact, just about any cancer was considered a death sentence. As a result, patients were often not told what was wrong. They died not knowing what killed them.

Rhonda woke up at about 4:00 a.m. with a tickle in her throat. It bothered her enough to get her out of bed. Then, what seemed like a minor discomfort, suddenly became something much more worrisome. Rhonda later began to cough up blood.

She sat down to consider and, as had been her habit since she was 12, she lit a cigarette.

“So I smoked and thought about it,” Rhonda says. “No other signs had reared their head previously. I was active and felt like I was going to live forever. (My) only doctor visits (were) to have children, basically. Then this monster took over our lives.”

Rhonda went to the hospital where the staff wanted to admit her immediately. She wanted to sit down, have a cigarette and think about it. She had other things to do, after all.

She went home, but she did schedule tests. The monster turned out to be a tumor the size of a golf ball in her upper left lung: Stage 1 cancer. Rhonda was only 49 years old at the time.

Not a lot was known about Mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer, in the 1980s. That is probably one of the reasons why the dime-sized tumor was first diagnosed as Stage 2b Adenocarcinoma. Whatever the reason, Babbette is still angry that her grandfather died from the disease, even after 30 years.

If there is one thing that not just lung cancer patients, but many cancer patients in general have in common, it is that the diagnosis often comes as a brutal shock. Adding to the blow, with lung cancer in particular, symptoms usually occur late in the progress of the disease. Unfortunately, when the symptoms show, it is often after the cancer has spread to other organs, when the prognosis is poor.

At least for now, Janet seems to be an exception to the rule that the majority of people with advanced lung cancer die from the disease within a relatively short time.

However, the fact that Janet seems to be having success fighting the disease does not change the impact of the diagnosis. In Janet’s case, that diagnosis was lung cancer - Stage 4 Small Cell Carcinoma, to be exact.

“My mom would be proud that I’m spreading awareness about lung cancer,” says Amanda. “She said when she got better, she was going to spread awareness and fund-raise for lung cancer. So I’m making it my lifelong goal to fight for a cure!”

Amanda’s mother died of lung cancer on October 11, 2011. The emotional pain is still sharp, but so is Amanda’s resolve to make a difference for other lung cancer patients. She wants to see the stigma attached to patients who have smoked removed, and to let the world know that lung cancer kills more people every year than breast, colon, kidney, liver, prostate and melanoma cancers combined.

Mostly, though, she wants people to understand what a great person her mother was, and just how painful it is to watch a loved one be consumed by the disease.

Arla knows the facts about lung cancer and the health effects of smoking all too well. The disease has taken her uncle and her sister. Additionally, her brother also fought lung cancer. He seemed to beat it, but recently succumbed to leukemia. All of them smoked. Lung cancer has also has claimed her mother’s first cousin, a non-smoker.

“No one who smokes ever believes that they’re going to get cancer,” Arla says. “There’s the denial that it’s not going to happen to me, and you just continue to live your life.”

According to Arla, her sister lived with this kind of denial, and she recognizes the power it can have.

“I used to tell her, please, please stop smoking, and she said to me, ‘Well, look at Dad. He beats everything.’ And I said, ‘But he’s the exception. He’s not the rule.’ And she just kept smoking.”

Liz wants to trumpet a few “ugly facts” about lung cancer. She takes them from the Lung Cancer Alliance at http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/facing/facts.html, and includes a few of her own lung cancer statistics.

Gaynor’s mother had developed an unproductive cough – a dry hacking. A month later, she complained of weakness in her right arm, and was afraid she’d had a stroke. Four months after that, she entered the hospital because her arthritic hip had turned septic – infected.

By the time Gaynor’s mother entered the hospital, her arm was very weak. The doctors had x-rays done, afraid that the sepsis in her hip had spread. Instead, they discovered Stage 4 small cell lung cancer. It had already spread to her brain.

As Lung Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we are reminded of those who have battled the disease, as well as those who have lost loved ones. In honor of this, we have posted a series of stories from people who have been affected by lung cancer, both in their own lives, or by helping a loved one battle the disease. To read those stories, which will continue to be posted throughout the first few weeks of December, click here.