Glenna M., OR

My life has been upended by cancer three times. The first for breast cancer and the 2nd and 3rd for lung cancer. This deadly disease has also had a profound effect on the rest of my family. While I was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, my beautiful younger sister was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. She lost her life to the disease, as my grandfather and two uncles did before her.

Unfortunately, the lung cancer legacy in our family did not end there. Two months after my retirement, I learned I had lung cancer, and I also had a recurrence in 2015. My brother received a diagnosis of the disease during the height of our covid crisis. As you can imagine, my remaining sibling is continually looking over her shoulder, wondering if she will be next.

They say that timing is everything and following my initial diagnosis and treatment, the United States Protective Services Task Force, or USPSTF, approved low dose ct scans as the first viable screening tool for lung cancer. Their recommendation for these scans gave me hope and since then, I have devoted my time to advocacy and getting eligible folks screened.

The CDC has played a key role in educating the public on the benefits of early detection with low dose scans for lung cancer screening. When it was first rolled out in 2013, the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer was 16%. Today survival is at 28% nationally.

When my lung cancer recurred in 2015, I learned I was not eligible for any further surgery, which is considered the gold standard for any cancer. Instead, I was offered Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, or SBRT, as an alternative to surgery which was a new type of treatment at my health care facility. Today I am cancer-free thanks in part to having received this new treatment.

The NIH not only helped in funding the research and development of SBRT, over the past decade, they have funded the development of many new targeted and immunotherapy drugs in the fight against lung cancer, all of which has contributed to an improved survival rate of this deadly disease.

When sharing my story with newly diagnosed lung cancer patients, I tell them there is more hope than ever before because of new drug therapies and treatments. Should my remaining sibling one day receive a lung cancer diagnosis, thankfully there are now more effective treatment options available to her.

Lastly, I was so fortunate to have had access to good healthcare when I received both of my lung cancer diagnoses. Many individuals in this country today are not as lucky, and they must rely on Medicaid for their health care coverage, including 24% of all lung cancer patients.

These are unsettling times and there are many challenges facing our country. However, lung cancer is still the number one cancer killer, and we must keep up an aggressive fight and ensure more early detection and more survivors of this deadly disease.

As Oregon’s Lung Force Hero, I am asking our Congressional Delegation to protect the CDC so fewer people get lung cancer. I am asking them to protect the NIH so that it can continue its robust research to develop new treatments and cures for lung cancer. And finally, I am asking them to protect Medicaid so that lung cancer patients can continue to have access to quality, affordable healthcare coverage.