Female Speaker: Most of us know that smoking causes lung cancer. But even those who quit many years ago or never smoked are still at risk.
Dr. Mark Kris: And of the people that are do the diagnose with lung cancer about 60% of them now had smoked in the past, but have already stop smoking, that is the largest group of people that develop this illness.
Female Speaker: Angie Lee-Ow worked as a pharmacist for more than 30 years, 15 of them in clinical trial research because of her medical background. When Angie began experiencing back pain and extreme tiredness she new something was wrong and went to see her doctor.
Angie Lee-Ow: And I don't a take it away from how shocking it is for people who have smoked, but for someone who has no risk factors, it's especially difficult to accept.
Female Speaker: Angie had never smoked yet she was diagnosed with inoperable advance stage 4 lung cancer.
Angie Lee-Ow: Ray was out of town at the time and so when I called him and finally said to him, they think I have cancer that's when I saw him broke down.
Dr. David Gandara: One of the biggest challenges in treating lung cancer is that there are usually no symptoms early on and what I mean by this just by the time a patient develops a symptom from lung cancer, such as shortness of breath or a cough or pain. The lung cancer can be quite advanced regardless of how lung cancer is discovered or where lung cancer has spread when it is discovered. We are always looking for better ways to fight the illness.
Female Speaker: Survival rates for stage 4 lung cancer patients are low. The expected five years survival mark is less then 16% still through clinical trials and advances in targeted treatment therapies, those statistics are changing.
Dr. Andrew Cuddihy: One of the things I think it's important for lung cancer patients to realize is lung cancer is not always a fatal disease. In some cases surgery can be curative also chemotherapy and radiation therapy can prolong life and in most cases improve the quality of life.
Dr. Mark Socinski: I have been much more enthusiastic about changing the outcomes for lung cancer patients over the past several years as we began to understand the basic biologic pathways that these cancers used to the development of some really new therapies of that target these particular pathways.
Female Speaker: Angie's cancer was too far advance for traditional treatment, so she received an experimental medication through a clinical trial. 19 months after, her treatment she is doing well, but there is no cure for Stage IV disease. Medical expert say the outlook is bright though and each passing year the number of people cured continues to increase everyone involved in the fight against lung cancer is eager to see cure rates rise as medical treatment advance.
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