Peter Jennings Has Lung Cancer

I just saw a replay on Larry King of Peter Jennings announcing that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will begin chemotherapy next week. He sounded very hoarse and stated that he had smoked until about twenty years ago.

This will obviously bring lung cancer to the forefront of cancer discussions. We are seeing better success with lung cancer treatments but no where to the level you would like to see 5 year survival rates.

If you've ever seen a smoker's lung compared to a normal healthy lung you would be amazed. Lung cancer would be greatly reduced if people gave up the cancer sticks.

Occasionally there are still those cases where people who don't smoke but still develop lung cancer. We currently have a 33 yo female non smoker with a large upper lobe cancer that grew over 50% on two different chemo regimens. Luckily, with combined chemo (Gemzar)/radiation treatment the tumor regressed and was able to be resected. Amazingly enough, when the tumor was removed there was no evidence of disease. I put this one in the divine intervention category.