November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, local doctor and social media influencer raise awareness

The Spark

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Stephanie Williams was a nurse and stopped her employment when she had her daughter in 2015. In 2021, she had a persistent cough that turned out to be lung cancer.

“When I was diagnosed, I was 37 years old, and I didn't have the typical risk factors we think of when we think of lung cancer. For example, I'm what they call a never smoker. I didn't have a family history of lung cancer, and there were no environmental exposures that we were aware of that would have contributed to my diagnosis. So, my family and I were very shocked, “said Williams.

According to Dr. Troy Moritz, thoracic surgeon with UPMC, Lung Cancer is abnormal growth in the lung.

“It occurs when the cells have mutations. They go unchecked and then they multiply sometimes rapidly. And the checks and balances that our body has to take care of, altered DNA sort of fail. And so those cells are allowed to multiply unchecked. You can have growth of different types of cells and that's why we get different types of lung cancer, “said Moritz.

Historically, there are different ways that someone can get diagnosed with lung cancer.

“You had symptoms. Now you maybe coughed up blood. Maybe you were short of breath, maybe you had a cough, maybe had chest pain. And your doctor would then prescribe an X-ray or a Cat scan or some other diagnostic test. The other way was what we called incidentally found. And that's people that maybe had a kidney stone and got a Cat scan or they fell off a ladder and came to the E.R. and got a Cat scan or for some reason they got imaging done. And on that imaging, we would see a nodule or a mass that would lead to an investigation and uncover that they had lung cancer. Nowadays, we're fortunate because we have screening for lung cancer, “said Moritz.

Today, Stephanie has become an influencer on social media, raising awareness about Lung Cancer.

“Shortly before starting chemotherapy, I went on Tik Tok and just made a couple of videos talking about this crazy thing that happened to me, which is finding a tumor in my long after a little bitty cough that I wasn't too worried about. And sharing that story got some interest. People started following me. People would comment about a family member they know that had lung cancer or even people who were newly diagnosed themselves. And I continued to share my story through chemo. And the following grew a little bit. And it's been a nice outlet for me to kind of process some things surrounding my diagnosis. And it's made some great connections for me with other people, with lung cancer organizations and helps me get the word out, “said Williams.

During this month, Dr. Moritz is working to raise awareness and break the stigma associated with lung cancer.

“You know, I started my career a long time ago and, you know, lung cancer was perceived as, you know, kind of an older smoker's disease. And so there's not a lot of sympathy in that. And so over time, you know, as less and less of our population smoke, it becomes more and more apparent that nonsmokers do get lung cancer. And so people like Stefanie are incredibly important to advocating for that and changing people's perception of what lung cancer is all about. A lot of times when people think about women's cancers, everybody immediately thinks about the gynecologic or the breast cancer. But what most people don't realize is that lung cancer kills more women. It's the leading cancer killer in women. And so that's an awareness that most people just don't have. And so people like Stephanie can sort of help change those minds to young people get cancer. Not a lot, but some do in nonsmokers get lung cancer, but it's also survivable. There's been more advancements in the last five years than the prior 50 years, and that comes from surgery, radiation advancements, chemotherapy advancements. The entire treatment paradigm has changed. People survive a lot longer with more advanced stage lung cancer. And so it's important to have advocates. It's important to have people out there that are trying to change the way people see lung cancer because that drives funding and it drives organizations that are out there creating public awareness, “said Moritz.

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