Lung Cancer Awareness

[Tom Galli]

Today starts our month. Forum members are all too well aware of lung cancer. This awareness is for others; for those who don't know or more importantly don't care. It matters not how we come to this disease. Once we have it, we are branded by stigma, and the stigma is a smoke screen! People think ours is a second class disease; "we deserve it!" "We gave it to ourselves!" Accordingly, policy makers believe research for new diagnosis and treatment methods is better applied elsewhere. Policy makers are lost in a smoke screen!

Ironically, because of the good work of our Foundation, we are breaking new ground in the lab. We've been driving the immunotherapy train the last 3 years; this new discovery is changing outcomes. Stage IV is treatable! There are people on this forum who are NED at Stage IV because of immunotherapy! A dedicated band of scientists and doctors have created a small wave of success. This wave needs to morph into a tsunami and engulf the smoke screen! Many of us are waiting and dying.

This month, we need to drive change in hearts and minds and reach those who don't know or don't care. We need them to become aware and do something that disperses the smoke screen. Do not miss an opportunity to tweak a policy maker. Some are elected, most are not. Uniformly, they are inoculated against change. They are hiding in the smoke screen. Overwhelm them this month! They need to be 'woke' to find, fix and finish lung cancer.

Gail (far left in photo) is cherished and remembered. She didn't run out of time or hope; she ran out of treatment methods.

Stay the course.

Tom

[zara1305]

When you are talking about this as we gave it to ourselves are you referring to smoking?  If so I just read a very interesting article saying that more women who have never smoked are now being diagnosed with lung cancer!!  After thinking about this it actually makes sense.. women are into so many crafts today and we are using paints, stains, glues, breathing in dust from treated woods without using a mask, I could go on and on but you get the idea.... I did post this on my FB page.

[LexieCat]

Tom is talking about the attitude a lot of people on the "outside" have about lung cancer. As you note, many people who develop lung cancer never smoked. 

And besides, smokers don't "deserve" this any more than anyone else. I was a smoker all my adult life (quit a year before my diagnosis). I wish I could have quit, I tried but was unsuccessful. It's a crappy disease and there's nothing fair about it.

[LouT]

Lexie's points are well-made.  I believe the present statistic is that 1 of 7 smokers get cancer and a pulmonologist told me that 10-15% of smokers get COPD.  But while there is no doubt that  is the major contributor, I've also read that as many as 28% of the cases are in non-smokers...we have a number here on our forum.  All cancers have many causes; some genetic, some situational (e.g., smoking) some unintentional (e.g., chemical cleaners or asbestos)...the reason no longer matters.  I would never look at a diabetic and tell them they should have eaten better.  Everybody does something to affect their mental and physical health...at the end of the day we need to look out for one another.  I quit smoking 16 years before my diagnosis so, was it smoking, genetics or something else???  Either way regardless of the cause, my desire is to see everyone here (and those not here) cured...with a long life before them.  But my feelings run the same for the diabetic, or the person who never ate healthy or the one who drove too fast and was hurt in a car accident.  

Lou