Group helps reduce isolation, provide sense of community
While death rates have been declining for men, they remain stubbornly high for women. Each year lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer, ovarian cancer and cervical cancer combined.
“Traditionally, people with lung cancer have not been good about coming forward and looking for support,” said Diane Manii, the retired social worker who leads the group, which held its first meeting Oct. 24 at the Maplesoft Cancer Centre on Alta Vista Drive.
“Women were traditionally the caregivers who were used to looking after others and not themselves,” said Manii.
“The group reduces isolation, can provide a sense of community and help them find that they are not alone. We teach them how to manage unwanted thoughts because the mind naturally wants to jump to the worst conclusion possible.”
The women in Sharing Air Together range in age from 26 to 81, Manii said.
“For me, when I met a lung cancer survivor who was alive eight years after diagnosis, or 12 years after diagnosis, that gave me so much hope,” said Hamer-Wilson. “Having four years under my belt might give some hope to others that they could have a similar outcome.”
Hamer-Wilson was 48 when she was diagnosed. She assumed the cough she picked up at the beginning of her kids’ school year was from a cold. But the cough worsened and the puffers her doctor prescribed didn’t seem to help. The bad news came during a visit to an oncologist on a Thursday afternoon in December 2013. She and her husband told their children about it on the weekend (“It was the hardest conversation of my life.”) and on the Tuesday she started chemo.
“I was healthy, fit and strong. I ate broccoli every day. It came as a complete shock this lung cancer diagnosis,” she said.
Genetic research has led to enormous strides in treating lung cancer. Hamer-Wilson’s cancer has a genetic abnormality known as ALK, which opens up the possibility of using new, targeted drugs that can temporarily turn off the switch that makes the cancerous cells reproduce.
The five months of chemotherapy she endured at the beginning of her diagnosis left her too exhausted to climb a set of stairs. Hamer-Wilson plays guitar and loves to sing, but the disease stole the breath she needed. The new drugs have helped her regain a quality of life she once thought impossible, including her singing voice, even though the drugs’ side effects can be tough.
“When you’re talking life and death, you try not to complain about the side effects,” she said.
“This all so new. We just feel like we are riding the wave. There’s all this new research going on and it’s extending our lives. It’s really, really exciting.”
But the effects of the drugs don’t last as the cancer cells eventually find a way to get around them. When Hamer-Wilson’s first drug stopped working, she tried another. And then another. When this drug stops working, she prays there will be a new one available.
“I need to be honest, and I don’t want to sound greedy because I’m really grateful for the four years that I’ve had ... but it points to sad state of lung cancer research. We need more treatments. We’re just getting to the possibilities of longer, but we need money and research and treatments that we can access.”
Targeted drugs like Hamer-Wilson’s are just one of the new avenues for lung cancer treatments, said Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price, an Ottawa oncologist and president of Lung Cancer Canada. But less than a quarter of lung cancers are suitable for current targeted therapies, he said. Immunotherapy, where the body’s own immune system is turned against the cancerous cells, is another treatment that has revolutionized cancer treatment.
“Immunotherapy has changed our clinics, and not just for lung cancer,” he said.
“The research now is, since we know that immunotherapies work, it’s a matter of how we use them. Are there better ones? Should we use them by themselves? Should we combine them with chemotherapy? Should we combine them with other drugs? Or should we use them in ways we haven’t even thought of yet.”
But Wheatley-Price is frustrated by the long waits to get cancer drugs approved for use in Canada and by the shortage of research money. Lung cancer accounts for 27 per cent of all cancer deaths, but receives just seven per cent of the funding. One reason, he said, is stigma.
“There is still stigma with lung cancer that we have to challenge — the idea that you deserved it because you smoked. I think that’s fundamentally wrong. In Canada we don’t judge people on their sexuality or your faith or your gender. But I think you do get judged by what kind of cancer you get.”
November is Lung Cancer Awareness month and Lung Cancer Canada’s annual Evening of Hope gala will be held Thursday, Nov. 16 at Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park. For more information go to Lung Cancer Canada website, lungcancercanada.ca
I was healthy, fit and strong. I ate broccoli every day. It came as a complete shock this lung cancer diagnosis.