CHESAPEAKE, Va. — November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
Sentara Healthcare is encouraging eligible patients to talk to their providers about being screened.
Imagine sitting in a doctor's office and being told you have lung cancer. Back in the 90s, a Chesapeake man had this exact conversation with his doctor, resulting in him having his lung removed.
"I was a smoker. Usually, that is the first question people ask when I tell them I had lung cancer," said Michael McColgan. "I smoked for 20 years I was having 3 packs a day,"
Years ago, McColgan said smoking was a way of life. He says it was advertised often on TV, considered a relaxer and even used by celebrities.
"It was promoted by everyone, by society. I went into the army and had cigarettes in my rations," said McColgan.
One day, a pain in his chest encouraged him to quit.
"I got a stabbing pain in my chest and I ignored it and I took a couple more steps and it dropped me to my knee," said McColgan.
Mccolgan says he smoked his last cigarette that day, but unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
"One year later I had pneumonia and we treated me for pneumonia it looked like we had kicked it with medication I went back to work on Sunday I spiked a fever of 105, so we took another x-ray and the tip of my left lung had collapsed," recalled McColgan.
Doctors performed a biopsy on McColgan, which resulted in bad news.
"The next day I got a call from my doctor that told me they found cancer on the biopsy," said McColgan. "He gave me the name and the address of my surgeon and instructed me to meet him that afternoon,"
Five days later, McColgan had to have his lung surgically removed. Doctors found a tumor the size of a softball that did not show up on x-ray.
"One of the scariest things about lung cancer is that it doesn't show up until it's done enough damage for something to start dying on you and your systems and at that point, it shows up," said McColgan.
Sentara lung and critical care doctor, Sherif El-Mahdy says research and the advancement of technology have helped medical experts detect lung cancer earlier through low-dose cancer test scans, a quick, painless, and non-invasive screening able to catch lung cancer at an earlier stage.
"Think of it as a magnified chest x-ray for your lungs," said Dr. El-Mahdy. "It is low dose because it's more or less radiation than a regular CT scan it's almost the equivalent of having 10 x-rays in a CT scan,"
Michael thinks that things would be different for him today if he had access to this type of screening.
"A CT scan would have seen an abnormal growth on the lung," said McColgan. "It was my tissue so the x-ray goes through your tissue it's looking for solids so that's why it didn't show up on an x-ray,"
According to Sentara Healthcare, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Lung cancer is generally diagnosed based on symptoms at stage III or IV.
Dr. El-Mahdy says this kind of cancer can affect all different ages.
"We are seeing patients as young as their 30s at earlier ages and I see patients up to their 90s," said Dr. El-Mahdy.
Survival is significantly higher when lung cancer is detected early, which is often before a patient is symptomatic.
For those living with lung cancer, McColgan encourages patients to stay positive.
"We have to look at each day as a blessing because you don't know what tomorrow holds," said McColgan.
Today, McColgan spends his life advocating for lung cancer awareness with the American Cancer Society.
The American Lung Association says LDCTs can detect over half of lung cancers at an early stage when it is more curable. Cancers found with those screenings are often stage I or II. Only about 25% of cases are detected without screenings.
Low-dose cancer test screenings are proven to find cancers at stage I or II. However, only 5-17% of the eligible population nationally and in Virginia are screened.
To be eligible for a low-dose cancer test screening you must be 50-80 years old, have a 20-pack-year smoking history, and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.
