The Library is celebrating Lung Cancer Awareness in August.  Lung Cancer Awareness month is actually in November, but I will gladly spread awareness to this disease 365 days a year…well, 366 in 2024.  Thanks leap year!!  As a lung cancer survivor, it’s difficult to narrow down what I want to say in a short blog.  I could write pages!!  But there is one thing that stands out as the most important piece of information: anyone with lungs can get lung cancer.

I thought lung cancer was caused by smoking.  But, in September of 2014, I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  It came as a shock.  There were no previous warning signs.  I was young and fairly healthy.  I didn’t fit the profile of who I thought needed to worry about lung cancer.  But I was suddenly feeling short of breath and having to advocate for myself.  It was a very scary and confusing time.  Luckily the first doctor I visited took my concerns seriously.  Even though lung cancer was not on his radar, he started the process of many tests that quickly got me diagnosed and treated.

I was fortunate to be introduced to a very patient and educated oncologist, who sat with me and my family for hours explaining the various causes of lung cancer in young patients with little to no smoking history.  He recommended that I have a biopsy sent away for genetic testing.  There are several known genetic markers that can cause lung cancer, and I had one of them (adenocarcinoma with EGFR exon 19 deletion)!  The good news is that the marker present in my lung cancer is the most researched.  That increased my best-case scenario prognoses from 18 months to three years with treatment.  The bad news is, lung cancer is the least funded cancer research group, despite being responsible for more annual deaths than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined.  Lack of research meant there was a likelihood that treatment options would run out faster than what I needed.  I am one of the lucky few, though. Next month I will celebrate my ten-year cancerversary!! 

Since diagnosis, I’ve been trying to become a fierce advocate for lung cancer by spreading awareness, contributing to fundraisers for research, writing to our congressman to request increased funding for research, attending a bill signing in Frankfort and even joining a research study attempting to answer why non-smokers under the age of 40 are increasingly being diagnosed with lung cancer.  And as I mentioned, and what I continue to see, is that anyone with lungs can get lung cancer. 

Blog Written by Michelle Schwarberg