Lung cancer advocates and ambassadors share their tales of victory against the disease, proving that a diagnosis is not a death sentence.
As all kinds of cancers, lung cancer is best treated when detected as early as possible, hence Dr. Meredith Garcia, an oncologist, discusses early warning signs.
“One problem in lung cancer is that most of the time, it has an insidious onset. Most commonly, we find patients in the later stages. That’s why it’s very important for people to know the symptoms, so that the earliest that one experiences these symptoms, the patient will already consult a doctor,” asserts Dr. Garcia.
Among the early symptoms are a cough that doesn’t go away even after a few weeks, weight loss, loss of appetite, and infections that keep coming back.
For Stage II lung cancer survivor Fr. Jerry Orbos, these symptoms were familiar.
“I had a long cough and got tired easily—but I had no idea it was lung cancer,” he shares. In fact, it was entirely by coincidence that he found out about his disease.
“An accident made me go for a checkup. I had a CT scan. I don’t know why I told the doctor, ‘Check my lungs as well.’ And there it was, this white spot on the left upper lobe.”
Thanks to this accident, Fr. Orbos discovered his cancer when it was still just in Stage II.
Experts say anything that delays treatment harms the patient’s chances of survival. And, according to Dr. Garcia, this is where the greatest danger of alternative medication comes in.
“The main problem with [alternative medicine] is the delay in seeking proper medical attention,” laments Dr. Garcia, who is also a social media activist for evidence-based cancer treatment.
She continues, “Sometimes they have this false reassurance—‘Oh, I’m taking this supplement and the seller says this will do this and that’—so they have a false sense of reassurance that they are actually getting better, only to find out later that the cancer has spread. And then that’s when they come to the medical oncologist, when it’s very difficult to treat already.”
Another thing that causes people to delay seeking medical attention is the belief that if they live a healthy lifestyle, cancer cannot get them.
Tetit Melendres Aristan, a former health buff, would be the first to attest that this is not necessarily true.
In September 2018, she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. “I was not even a smoker. I often went to the gym and I only eat lean meat. So when I learned of my diagnosis, it was as if a huge rock fell on me,” she shares.
In deciding for her treatment, Aristan asked her doctor about immunotherapy, because she had read about it in Fr. Orbos’ stories about his fight with cancer. Her doctor initially decided on a two-drug combination regimen with chemotherapy but switched to a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy later on, when the mass in Aristan’s lungs had grown.
“A day after my first immunotherapy infusion, my coughing, which had started in September 2018, stopped. Two weeks later, my swallowing was back to normal,” she relates.
After her second infusion, Aristan had a CT scan. “The result read, ‘There is a marked regression in size [of the tumor].’ It decreased by more than two-thirds. Even the lesions in my liver were slowly resolving.”
Increasing access to novel treatment options like immunotherapy and addressing other key concerns in the whole spectrum of the lung cancer patient journey had been the focus of the Hope From Within: “Voices of Hope: Winning vs Lung Cancer” advocacy.
By introducing new ambassadors who will espouse the objectives of the multi-stakeholder campaign, Hope From Within aims to lessen the burden of the cancer disease, renew hope, and save more lives.
Hope From Within is aligned with the “Inventing for Life” corporate anthem of MSD in the Philippines which encapsulates the vision and the company’s efforts towards invention and innovation to fight some of the world’s most life-threatening diseases like lung cancer.
