You will not see The Monster until it is too late. One day you are out, playing with your kids; in a meeting at work; reading a book at home; making plans for the future. The next moment you have barely enough time to realize you are dying.
November is the month of the Presidential elections. The month of the New York City Marathon. For those millions of Americans touched by lung cancer, November is first and foremost Lung cancer awareness month to fight lung cancer and end stigma against lung cancer patients.
Alec Baldwin already set the example on Twitter.
It is early October, the night of the second debate ahead of the Presidential elections. Throughout the city, bars and cafes are crowded with people waiting for the debate. Outside, young men are smoking, trying to look manly; a few women are smoking too, wearing a wannabe seductress expression.
In a pharmacy, a young sad-eyed Latina woman, holding her little curly-haired son’s hand, is waiting in line to buy cigarettes. She is in a hurry because she has to drop her boy off at home with her mother, then go to her second job.
As I head home, I cross paths with a man in a wheelchair, coughing badly, as he holds a lit cigarette outside the public housing building he lives in. The people passing by pointedly walk around him, casting looks of intense disapproval, even contempt at him.
It is this paradox that the Monster—lung cancer—thrives on: to this day, smoking is still considered a socially acceptable, even cool, activity. Yet there is little sympathy for those who suffer the consequences of long-term smoking. “Well they should not have been smokers” is a form of widespread racism that makes cancer even more lethal, as people shy away from seeking preventive screening or treatment.
The monstrosity and hypocrisy of this approach is accentuated by the fact that about 20% of the people affected by lung cancer have not been smokers. Exposure to second-hand smoke, air pollution, or toxic substances like asbestos or radon gas can cause lung cancer. Genetic mutations can cause lung cancer.
As for the majority of lung-cancer patients—those who have been smokers—they usually belong to the most vulnerable of our society: they are often low-income; single mothers; hard-working people dedicated to their families, who were dealt a tough hand in life, and used smoking as a coping mechanism, to let off the steam. They did not drink, do drugs, party: they used a product sold in pharmacies next to chewing gum.
The Monster of Lung Cancer and the stigma attached to those suffering from it, are the double-headed Monster that Dr Raja M. Flores, Professor and Chair of Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is fighting against, every breath he takes. For him, when it comes to sickness, to cancer, to suffering, no one is innocent or guilty
A new study that Dr Flores headed at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published this month in the journal Carcinogenesis, establishes a new biomarker identifying known and unknown exposure to second-hand smoke. The results of this study confirmed a strong association to increased mortality in non-smokers.
The results of this study may save millions because although we live in a time of nascent hope (two days ago, the FDA approved the first clinical trial, here in New York, of Cuba's lung-cancer vaccine; immunotherapy drugs like Merck & Co.’s Keytruda, or Roche Holding AG's Tecentriq are giving hope to thousands of lung cancer patients; as are studies on the effects of radiotherapy on mesothelioma) the two most important factors in fighting lung cancer, still are prevention and early interception.
Recent studies have shown that lung cancer is curable when it is promptly removed. Screening in high-risk individuals with low-dose radiation CT scans can often be a lifesaving procedure.
Dr Raja Flores’s new research proves that in people who do not believe they have had second-hand smoke exposure, cotinine blood levels are more accurate in determining their exposure and subsequent risk of lung cancer and other smoking-related disease.
This demonstrates a pressing need for tighter limits on smoking (cars, public housing, and multi-unit housing structures are exempt from federal or state anti-smoking laws;) education efforts in low-income and minority communities; increased preventive screenings for those more likely to have been exposed to second-hand smoke.
The same triptych (prevention-screening-early intervention) is what Dr Flores follows for thousands of people—from firefighters and police officers, to private citizens — who rushed to help in any way they could, when the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks happened.
Many of these people are now suffering from lung cancer or mesothelioma—another form of lung malignancy.
Their patron saint is Dr Raja Flores, who is championing their cause in every way (including in the HuffPost,) and giving them hope (through research, surgery, treatment) where they have none.
Speaking to mesothelioma.com Dr Flores stresses: “Every patient is unique. There is no algorithm or set way; each patient you need to look at their circumstances and decide a plan.”
Looking at the patient not the cancer, is the only way to defeating lung cancer, and the inhumanity of the bias against its victims.
This is the message of hope and love to share this November, Lung cancer awareness month.