Augusta, GA (WJBF)- Today, we begin our week long series on the Georgia Cancer Center’s Unite in the Fight Against Cancer fundraiser. Each day we will be talking about one of the cancers the hospital is highlighting for the day. Today, we are talking about lung cancer.
Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer of men and women in the United States every year. An estimated 236,000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021.
Lung Cancer has a high mortality rate. An estimated 132,000 will die from it in 2021. One local expert said that vigilance is key for those with high risk factors for the disease.
Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim is a Medical Oncologist and Lung Cancer Specialist at the Georgia Cancer Center.
“I would start to say that prevention is better than cure. So certainly, people who have smoked, especially, you know, 20 or 30 years of smoking, we do have the screening program. So even before they experience symptoms or problems from any disease, they always should look for screening,” she said.
Part of the danger of lung cancer is that symptoms don’t show up until the cancer has advanced. Some of those are a cough that won’t go away, coughing up blood and pain and difficulty breathing.
Experts say if you think something is wrong– don’t wait– get it checked out immediately.
“So it’s very important that they seek medical attention early on, because if someone is diagnosed with lung cancer, like stage 1, they can basically have surgery and if needed they can have any additional treatments according to the information we find find from surgery,” explained Dr. Karim. “But if they wait it’s gonna be like a stage 4 or metastatic cancer where the treatment is more difficult.”
Fay Elmore is a lung cancer survivor who has been in remission for 3 years. She credits the Georgia Cancer Center with saving her life. When she talked about Dr. Karim, she became emotional.
“I can go to her and talk to her and she’ll explain to me–if anything going on with me, she’ll explain to me so I can understand and break it down to me so I really know what she’s talking about. A lot of doctors I go to, they don’t do the things that she did for me. If I have a personal problem, I can go to her, she’s there for me,” Elmore said.
Dr. Karim says the two biggest contributors to lung cancer are smoking and obesity.
She said some of the funds raised from Unite in the Fight will go to cancer research which is critical to finding better treatments for the disease.
Funds raised through Unite in the Fight also go towards things like gas cards, hotel stays and food gift cards for patients who have to travel long distance for treatments.
Monday, the highlighted cancers are Head/neck and Thoracic cancers which include head and neck, lung, carcinoid and thyroid.
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