LungBlog

A LUNG cancer patient has spoken of his determination to continue living his life as normal as a new drive sets out to raise awareness of the symptoms of the disease.

John Belchamber spoke out during lung cancer awareness month as Macmillan Cancer Support and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation joined forces to urge people to look out for symptoms and seek help from their GP.

A SPECIALLY-BREWED beer to raise money for lung cancer research is on sale in some Brains pubs.

The beer is part of the massive bid to raise £1m for Velindre Cancer Centre’s Stepping Stones appeal, which will culminate in 15 former Wales rugby captains climbing Kilimanjaro.

The beer has been temporarily called Captain’s Climb Ale as its final name will be decided by Echo readers. A Media Wales competition – the closing date is today – has been running for the past six weeks to find a name for the beer.

A torn ACL four years ago changed Becky Augustin’s life. She underwent knee surgery, and during her recovery, she developed pneumonia.

A nonsmoker, Augustin, now 55, never thought she would develop lung cancer. But the X-ray performed to diagnose her pneumonia also detected a suspicious spot on her lungs.

It was just a slight cough and a tingling in her fingers.

State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon wasn’t really worried about either as this year’s regular legislative session was winding down at the Capitol.

“We were all coughing,” she said. “It’s like a meat locker in there.”

As for the tingling, a fellow lawmaker suggested it might be carpal tunnel syndrome because she did a lot of repetitive page-turning as a member of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

When some types of tissue become cancerous, there are the options of surgical removal or aggressive treatment to the affected area. Unfortunately, these choices are not always available to cancer patients whose illness has originated in the lungs. Because they are both delicate and vital to sustaining life, diseases that affect these organs often have grim prognoses.

If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with cancerous tumors in the lung, you do not need to give up hope. While the statistics may not be encouraging, some people with this disease manage to live for years or even see their illness go into remission. While there is no cure for this disease, there are steps you can take that may improve your prognosis (long-term expectancies).

As part of an effort to increase awareness of lung cancer and its devastating effects on this state, State Representative Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) and Dr. John Zerwas (R-Katy) honored the efforts of two local doctors who are battling on the front lines to treat the second leading killer of Americans. Lung cancer is one of the most common and deadly forms of this disease and will kill more people this year than all other cancers combined.

The doctors, Ralph Zinner and Raymond Sawaya, are professors at the University of Texas Health Science Center/MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and are world renowned for their work in treating cancer patients and their clinical research.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, so today’s column is dedicated to helping move this cause forward.

Based on 2006 data (the most recent CDC data I could find), heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans, but cancer is a close second. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. It is diagnosed in 200,000 Americans and kills more than 90,000 each year, with an incidence of about 70 per 100,000.

October, with its pink ribbons, T-shirts and yogurt lids, has passed, and I couldn’t be happier.

Thanks for those who dutifully bought pink. It did a lot of good. But to me, all that pink is a sore reminder of my mom’s death seven years ago, caused by a cancer seldom remembered with ribbons, walks or products hawked in women’s magazines.

Like about 160,000 others each year, my mother — who baked cakes, led Girl Scout troops and was an eager learner who returned to school while raising four children — died of lung cancer.

Kingsford resident Cornelius Coelho has told his story as part of Lung Cancer Awareness Month to dispel the myth that the disease affects only smokers.

Mr Coelho lived a healthy lifestyle of no cigarettes or alcohol and teaching martial arts.

But in January last year, he was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer stage 4.

In May 2009, I published an article on Huliq News entitled American Lung Association: Worsening of Lung Disease Linked to Pollution, which explored the history of the American Lung Association (ALA) and its fight to reduce atmospheric pollution and carbon emissions. I had the pleasure of interviewing Janice Nolen, Assistant Vice President of the ALA’s National Policy and Advocacy Branch. Read the transcript below…