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It takes more lives than breast, prostate and colon
cancer combined.
Still to come; how two women went from hearing
you have lung cancer to you are cancer free.
Plus, how two women were cured of the deadliest
type of cancer.
About 160,000 people in the United States are
diagnosed with lung cancer every year.
It is the deadliest cancer.
Many patients become too weak to survive surgery,
and until recently, there were few options for a
cure.
But now, doctors are finding ways to help people beat
the odds.
It kills more people than any other cancer.
It takes more lives than breast, prostate, and colon
cancer combined.
So how did these women go from hearing you have
lung cancer to you're cancer-free?
When you first hear you have cancer you don't really
expect to get over it like I did.
Frances Nirich is one of about 55,000 people who
are told they're too sick, too old or too weak for
surgery to remove the tumor.
She enrolled in a study to see if the CyberKnife
can help those who can't go under a real knife.
While you are radiating a tumor that moves, you
can hit it with millimeter precision.
The device shoots radiation into the tumor without
harming the rest of the lungs, even as the patient
breathes in and out.
A 5-year study found CyberKnife destroyed 95%
of tumors.
The 3-year survival rate; 80%.
A big difference from traditional radiation which
destroys 30% of tumors and carries a 30% survival
rate.
It destroyed all of Frances' cancer.
Almost unbelievable.
Lung cancer patient, Jennifer Hobick, didn't
want to go through major surgery either.
We're now using multiple small little keyhole
incisions and telescopes with long instruments.
Instead of an 8-inch incision between the ribs,
surgeons make a few inch long incisions and use
a camera and video screen to find the tumor.
I went back to work after 3 weeks.
Two lung cancer patients turned survivors thanks
to technology that's helping turn around the grim
statistics.
That is just amazing. The majority of people
who develop lung cancer are ex-smokers.
Doctors say as soon as you stop smoking, your
risk of lung cancer starts to go down and 15 years
after you've quit, the risk is almost as low as
that of a nonsmoker.