There was a light on at City Hall in San Francisco on November 9, 2006. The evening was declared “Lung Cancer Awareness Day,” by Mayor Gavin Newsom and more than 100 mayors, senators and legislators across the country.

That light was shining for patients, doctors, families and supporters to help find a cure for lung cancer. Dr. Claudia Henschke, a leading crusader and medical authority on lung cancer, who flew in from the East Coast to attend the event speaks volumes about its significance: “I didn’t think it was possible to bring 600 people under one roof for lung cancer, but you did it.” 

Lung cancer has come out of the darkness and I am proud to be one of the people making this happen. 

I know what it is like to fight for my life. I know about the smoking stigma. And I know that because I am one of the extremely lucky and rare individuals who can call myself “a lung cancer survivor.”
That is why these days, I have no choice but to wake up every day committed to the 173,000 lung cancer patients — smokers and non-smokers — who are confronting lung cancer for the first time this year. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the United States, taking more than 160,000 lives each year. Yet, lung cancer receives less research funding than almost any other cancer, making me mad, and making my mission more than just compelling — it’s vital.

Lung cancer swept into my life like a tornado and after a long recovery, I knew I had to do work to educate other people on lung cancer and the need for early detection and screening.  That is when Dr. David Jablons, my surgeon, and one of the leading lung cancer researchers in the country asked me to join his Thoracic Oncology Board at the UC San Francisco.

But I knew I had to do more.

Just eight months ago, I rallied the troops — leading thoracic cancer physicians like Dr. Thierry Jahan, other survivors, Hollywood actors and actresses, politicians, family members who have lost loved ones to lung cancer — everyone I could find and hundreds began to come, and we founded The Bonnie J. Addario A Breath Away From the Cure Foundation. (www.abreathawayfromthe cure.org.) I jokingly like
to say we are becoming venture capitalists for lung cancer research.

While research moves on at a roaring pace in the labs it is our job to get information to the streets. While we wait for a cure, I have made it my plight to wave the banner about the importance of early detection as the only way to fight this disease.

Our annual event this year shone the spotlight on lung cancer in a significant way that made national headlines. On the night Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was named Speaker of the House, her attention was on our house, sending awards and commendations to all of our hero honorees, politicians and those who are making a big difference in the battle against lung cancer came to San Francisco’s City Hall from all over the country. Author of Resolution 408, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska came all the way from Washington, DC to continue to declare lung cancer a national priority. California State Assemblymember Mark Leno was there with more commendations for our honorees.

One of my dream team doctors and recipient of the “Simply the Best Award”, Fred Marcus, MD of Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at Sequoia Hospital says “Treating people with advanced lung cancer is challenging, but the tides are starting to turn with respect to new therapeutic options available based on outstanding breakthroughs in cancer biology. The future looks much brighter today than it did even one year ago. ”

Bonnie Addario is a lung cancer survivor.

Posted on December 4, 2006 06:30 AM