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The UNC Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program Turns 10
In September 1995, the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program (MTOP) clinic began. They are celebrating their 10th anniversary, beginning in November 2005, Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
Dr. Mark Socinski offers his thoughts on why lung cancer garners so little national attention.
Patients coming to clinic on November 8 were served cake by student volunteers from Carolina Cancer Focus. Shown here are MTOP nurse coordinator Ann Steagall and CCF volunteer Zafia Anklesaria and Sarah Greenblatt, CCF president
MTOP Nurse Coordinator Ann Steagall
CCF volunteer Zafia Anklesaria
CCF President Sarah Greenblatt
On November 16, Dr. Rick Feins gave a Surgical Grand Rounds on “Progress in the Treatment of Lung Cancer--MTOP Ten Years Later.”
Dr. Rick Feins in speech
The MTOP Team
Front Row: Dr. Mark Socinski, patient Helen Sewell, Nurse Coordinator Ann Steagall,
2nd Row: Dr. Richard Feins, Dr. M. Patricia Rivera, Protocol Nurse Tammy Allred,
Protocol Nurse Maureen Tynan, Program Assistant Ginny Ditzel.
3rd Row: Dr. Tom Stinchcombe, Dr. Bill Funkhouser, Dr. Neil Hayes.
Team members not in picture: Dr. Tom Egan, Dr. Jan Halle.
Lung Cancer - Why So Little National Attention?
(By Mark A. Socinski, M.D.) As we observe Lung Cancer Awareness Month in November, the events of this year become particularly poignant. The death of ABC news anchor Peter Jennings, a former smoker, was one such event. Another was the announcement by Dana Reeve, Christopher Reeve’s widow, that she, too, has lung cancer, even though she has never smoked.
The stories of these two individuals have personalized lung cancer in much the same way Rock Hudson’s death personalized the AIDS epidemic. And indeed lung cancer also qualifies as an epidemic. It is this nation’s largest killer among all cancers, causing more American deaths each year than liver, colon, prostate and breast cancers combined. About 173,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year; about 164,000 are expected to die from the disease during the same time.
The Neglected Epidemic
Yet federal funding for lung cancer research has consistently lagged behind
other cancers. The National Cancer Institute estimates that it will spend about
half as much on lung cancer research this year as it does on breast cancer research,
even though lung cancer is expected to kill four times as many people.
Probably as a result of chronic underfunding, five-year survival rates have
not improved for lung cancer over the past three decades, whereas they have
improved significantly for most other cancers. Today, as in the 1970s, the five-year
survival rate for lung cancer hovers at around 15%, with 60% dying in the first
year after diagnosis. Compare this to the prostate cancer five-year survival
rate which has soared from 67% to 99%.
The Blame Game
Why has lung cancer been neglected? One reason is stigmatization. Lung cancer
patients are frequently blamed for having smoked. It’s true that most
lung cancer patients have smoked at one time or another, but it’s also
true that half of the people now being diagnosed with lung cancer are either
nonsmokers or have quit smoking. About 15% have never smoked.
Dana Reeve’s announcement also brings to mind another disturbing trend:
the number of non-smoking younger women who have been diagnosed with lung cancer.
An estimated one in five women lung cancer patients has never smoked. And, while
the number of men diagnosed with lung cancer has been going down, the number
of women has been rising over recent decades. The American Cancer Society estimates
that 73,020 women will die this year from lung cancer, about 14,000 of whom
are women who never smoked.
More Research, Better Treatments Needed
Another possible reason for the neglect of lung cancer is the low survival rate.
Tragically, this means there are few survivors to act as advocates and long-term
testing is practically impossible. This makes it all the more urgent that others
in the community become advocates. And as we have seen with other illnesses,
it is possible for compassion to tip the balance.
While companies and research organizations have invested hundreds of millions
in lung cancer research and progress is being made, there is a need for a nationwide
effort on a broad front if we are to prolong the lives of lung cancer sufferers.
The Lung Cancer Alliance, a national non-profit advocacy group, is executing
an aggressive campaign to bring pressure to bear on Congress to step up funding
for lung cancer research.
You can learn more about what you can do by calling toll-free 1-800-298-2436
or visiting http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/involved/events.html.
Also, be sure to urge your congressional representatives to fund lung cancer
research. It’s time we went on the offensive with this dangerous killer.
Mark A. Socinski, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Hematology/Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lineberger
Comprehensive Cancer Center
