MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – November is lung cancer awareness month and while many may think the symptoms of this deadly disease are obvious, that’s not always the case which can lead to diagnosis at an advanced stage.
Now, some of these most challenging cases are benefitting from advances in immunotherapy.
When Ruth Costa started experiencing leg pain a few years ago it was attributed to a vascular issue, but her doctor said a chest x-ray revealed an even greater concern in her lungs.
“He told me it was a stage four, the highest stage, with lung cancer,” said Costa.
“Patients really need to look out for different symptoms of lung cancer. people think about cough, shortness of breath, coughing up blood but lung cancer is a systemic disease so you can develop pain in the legs, you can develop headaches, you can develop visual changes and you may not think of those as being related to lung cancer,” said Dr. Oleg Gligich, an oncologist with Mount Sinai Medical Center.
He said tumor markers showed Costa was an excellent candidate for a single agent immunotherapy treatment called Keytruda.
“She was able to tolerate her immunotherapy relatively well, over the years we were able to space her out to six weeks instead of every three weeks and I’m happy to say she’s very close to remission and a few years ago I would not be able to say that,” Gligich said.
After all she’s been through, Costa said marking her 80th birthday this past summer was truly cause for celebration.
“I consider myself extremely lucky and thankful,” she said.
Cigarette smoking remains the number one risk factor for lung cancer.
It’s linked to about 80 to 90 percent of deaths from the disease in the U.S.
Using other tobacco products such as cigars or pipes also increases the risk of lung cancer.