FOCUS ON HEALTH:Benefits of early diagnosis

Newport Beach resident Stan McNeish will be grateful for his health, family and life this Thanksgiving after surviving three battles with cancer over the past six years.

About a month ago, McNeish was told he was cancer-free. But it’s not the first time. After three surgeries to remove parts of his lung, McNeish maintains he’s lucky to be alive, partially because of his early diagnosis.

Lung cancer is the top cause of cancer deaths in men and women — more than breast, prostate and colorectal cancer combined, said Sian Wing, a lung cancer nurse coordinator at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. A patient who’s diagnosed early is 15 times more likely to survive, like McNeish.

This month is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and Hoag is working to alert residents about the dangerous disease and what the hospital is doing to boost survival rates.

The Hoag Cancer Center started its Lung Cancer Early Detection Program in April and uses low-radiation CAT scans to examine lungs for small abnormalities. This allows doctors and nurses to see if someone may have the beginnings of a tumor growing, and if so, physicians can offer a much more rapid treatment. Since its inception, one person has been diagnosed with lung cancer, Wing said.

“Seventy-five percent of people diagnosed are in advanced stages,” Wing said.

In November 2000, seven months after moving to Newport Beach, McNeish was diagnosed with lung cancer in Pasadena. He had an operation that month, and doctors removed the top right lung lobe.

“I was really lucky to catch it early,” McNeish said. “It becomes inoperable if you wait too long.”

After almost four years of living cancer-free, another tumor was found on McNeish’s lung.

He had another surgery, this time to remove the lower left lung lobe. It was around this time he received a Hoag brochure in the mail about a lung cancer support group.

“It’s a horrible disease,” Wing said. “The most important thing a patient can do is have contact with someone who’s survived.”

McNeish decided to go and was inspired when he heard other survivors talk about their experiences. “It’s interesting to hear what the discussion groups and speakers have to say,” McNeish said. “And just having the response from other lung cancer survivors … there have been a couple who have been uplifting, and that’s really something that helped.”

Lung cancer is often called an invisible disease, Wing said, partially because the disease has the smoking stigma attached. The vast majority of people diagnosed are smokers, have smoked or have been around smokers, Wing said. For this reason, Hoag’s support groups are all the more important, she said.

But smoking isn’t the only impetus. McNeish said he never smoked, but there was a family history of smoking. His sister, who was a smoker, died of lung cancer. Hoag’s Early Detection Program aims to help past and present smokers, people with a family history of smoking or for those who may just be concerned.

Despite not smoking, in February 2005 — after becoming a patient at Hoag — yet another malignant spot was found on McNeish’s lung. After two months of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, doctors decided he still had to have another part of his lung removed. But through it all, McNeish stays positive.

“I take life as it comes,” he said. “I’ve lived a pretty good life, but I guess it would scare me if it does come back.”

For more information about Hoag’s Lung Cancer Early Detection Program or its support services, go to www.hoaghospital.org/cancercenter or call (949) 764-6889.