TAMPA, Fla. — We have a health alert we want to bring you. We’ve done several reports about the dangers of lung cancer – which is the deadliest form of cancer in the United States.
I spoke with a lung cancer survivor and her doctor about the technology that saved her life. Plus, I talked to her doctor about what you can do to prevent this deadly disease.
“I got sick over New Year’s and went to the emergency room and was in the hospital for six days with pneumonia,” said Debra Haberstroh. While in the hospital, Haberstroh would receive a diagnosis that would change her life. “They found a spot on my lungs. Actually, they found several, but most of them were resolved except one,” Haberstroh explained.
Her doctors told her it was lung cancer. “They did a bronchoscopy before I left the hospital,” said Haberstroh.
The only problem was they couldn’t reach the area where the cancer was located, and to add insult to injury, lung cancer patients only have a 17% survival rate.
“So, later, my pulmonologist called me, and she said that they had a new machine at Cleveland Clinic and they could do a robotic bronchoscopy, which is how I met Dr. Marsh,” said Haberstroh.
Dr. Michael Marsh is a pulmonologist with the Cleveland Clinic Florida. “So, we were able to get to her very quickly and very safely obtain a biopsy. And after resection, Debra’s cured,” said Dr. Marsh.
Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa also has this robotic technology.
How can you help prevent the onset of lung cancer?
Dr. Marsh: “Quit smoking, or not to start smoking, to begin with. Other things we can do is avoid second-hand smoke exposure, whether that’s from those around us smoking cigarettes or other things. Staying away from chronic exposure to campfires. Anything that we shouldn’t be inhaling.”
Are smokers the only ones at risk of getting lung cancer?
Dr. Marsh: “Non-smokers are still at risk for developing lung cancer. Around 15% to 20% of lung cancers that we diagnose today are never smokers.”
What are the symptoms of lung cancer?
Dr. Marsh: “That can be a little scary because, typically, especially in the early stages of lung cancer when it’s most curable, we don’t have any symptoms at all.”
That’s why pulmonologists recommend people between the ages of 50 and 80 who smoke or used to smoke get screened annually.
