Now I did read that!
Posted on 04/07/2005 1:52:05 PM PDT by Hillary's Lovely Legs
Peter Jennings' lung cancer, which he disclosed Tuesday on ABC World News Tonight, may be in an advanced stage, a local expert on the disease says.
Most patients don't have their conditions diagnosed until the cancer is "so advanced that it can't be cured by surgery, and the patient has a poor chance of long-term survival," says Rita Axelrod of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's Kimmel Center.
Details of Jennings' condition haven't been disclosed, but his hoarse voice and the fact that he isn't having surgery immediately "suggests he could be in at least stage III" of lung cancer, says Axelrod, director of pulmonary medical oncology.
In stage III, life expectancy for lung-cancer patients is 12 to 18 months, with less than 9 percent living for five years after their diagnosis, according to Axelrod.
Jennings, 66, World News anchor since 1983, shocked his ABC colleagues - and the broadcast world - by revealing in a staff e-mail Tuesday morning that the cancer had been diagnosed the previous day.
He said that he would begin outpatient chemotherapy next week, and that he would anchor when his health permits. Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas of 20/20, among others, will fill in.
Jennings had planned to anchor World News Tuesday, but changed his mind late in the day due to a weak voice. Looking thin, he told viewers his news in a taped segment at the end of the broadcast.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in the United States, with roughly four out of five people who have the disease dying within five years, Axelrod says.
The five leading causes: "Smoking, smoking, smoking, smoking and smoking."
Jennings, once described by a colleague as a "relentless smoker," says he quit 20 years ago but started again during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Nightline's Ted Koppel "was always goading Peter to quit," says Bob Zelnick, chairman of Boston University's journalism department and an ABC correspondent from '77 to '98.
"Sometimes Peter was like a kid, smoking in the bathroom or stealing a cigarette in the hallway," Zelnick says. "At one point, he went to a hypnotist to try to get control of it."
The traditional course of chemo for lung cancer is in cycles of three to four weeks, Axelrod says.
Some people "actually do very well. They're able to work and enjoy life... . They only need to take a few days off at a time."
Meanwhile, the abcnews.com message board has been flooded with good wishes for Jennings, ABC News' Jeffrey Schneider says.
Jennings joined Wednesday in World News' daily 9 a.m. editorial conference call and spoke throughout the day with exec producer Jon Banner, but he didn't anchor last night.
In the wings. Though ABC has no succession plan in place for Jennings, news division chief David Westin has the luxury of a deep bench.
Gibson, 62, and Vargas, 42, already designated subs, would be on any short list. Vargas is considered a fast-tracker at the network.
Other possibilities: chief White House correspondent Terry Moran and World News Saturday anchor Bob Woodruff.
If ABC decides to go with network evening news' first solo woman, GMA's Diane Sawyer, 59, is the logical choice, says CBS Evening News interim anchor Bob Schieffer.
"I have no idea whether she would want to leave GMA, but she's always been the one I would have thought was the strongest woman anchor right now in television, and she works for ABC."
Since Tom Brokaw stepped down Dec. 1, Jennings has brought World News close to the top-rated NBC Nightly News in the Nielsen wars. (CBS Evening News remains a distant third.)
With CBS's Dan Rather having stepped down March 9, ABC is perfectly poised to make a move. Its promo for Jennings says it all: "Trust is earned."
It's all we've ever known....unless you're John Kerry.
I'm dramatic. I used to be on the stage.
I use caps on certain words to emphasize them. Didn't you know that? Sorry that bothers you, but that's just me.
Shrieking? My goodness. I haven't said a word. You don't live near me do you? :)
NOW WHEN I DO THIS, YOU WILL KNOW I AM MAD!
Heh!
"secondhand smoke. your grandparents killed her."
Good for you. That's great. I know my mom is so glad she doesn't smoke anymore. (This Peter Jennings story has made her a little worried though.) Now we go into a restaurant and she can't stand the smell if they have a smoking section. Personally, I don't like the smell either, but I try not to look down on smokers since I grew up around them my whole life. Most people in my family have quit--dad, mom, brother, husband, father-in-law. Baby brother tried to quit and was successful but then would go back to it. Now he's in a "government facility" (to put it nicely) where they don't allow smoking. Anyway, it's nice to hear about your success story.
It makes me sick, eXe. It really does. I thought I would be safe and secure in Free Republic, thinking I would be among my own and be safe.
But anytime a smoking thread pops up, the nasties come out from under their rocks. I just shake my head. And you see how they accuse me. Just unbelievable.
BTW, El Dorado Co, CA. is the only county in CA with naturally occuring friable asbestos.
Please don't sit down next to me in my favorite bar. I was there first; no smoking in my space. Yes they will determine that beer will kill me too. I'll take my chances.
As to Mr. big shot from Canada? Too bad, he knew that cigarettes were killers at least forty years ago.
Warm laptops in their little laps can cause low sperm count too. LOL
That is the one time it was hardest for my mom when she quit. She loved to have a couple with her morning coffee.
Sickening, isn't it? Well, FnKerry doesn't have to worry. He has money out the gazoo and have you seen pictures of their 6 big mansions?
But oh yes, he is for the little guy. He makes me want to throw up.
Please don't sit down next to me in my favorite bar. I was there first; no smoking in my space. Yes they will determine that beer will kill me too. I'll take my chances.
Who are you?????
And I can get along with anybody! I'm a lover not a fighter, but I won't lay down and be a rug for anybody.
And don't worry. Now that you made the statement that you did, I would drive down another block just so I wouldn't have to be in the same place as you! Never fear.
And I think I am far north enough never to have to meet you. ~whew
Now I did read that!
I think you have lost it. Did not ask you to lay down. Go have another beer. Dare I say that?
How long had you smoked before you quit? I'd really love to quit, but I've been smoking for about 15 years and think it'd be harder than heck!
My father died of lung cancer in his 50's when I was a little kid. One of the few things I remember about him was that he smoked Camels. I'm not an anti-smoking zealot at all, people can do what they want - I just hope people quit for their own and their kids' sake.
Read what you posted to me. Telling me not to sit next to you and smoke.
"Please don't sit down next to me in my favorite bar. I was there first; no smoking in my space. Yes they will determine that beer will kill me too. I'll take my chances."
And I said:
And I can get along with anybody! I'm a lover not a fighter, but I won't lay down and be a rug for anybody.
And for your information, I don't drink. The only bad habit I have is smoking. How's that.
Kinda testy, aren't we? Maybe it's not ME that needs a drink.
Whoohaaawhhooohahahahahahahahaha.
Is there a full moon?
Good night!
Probably the only thing worse than cancer is chemotherapy.
I had a buddy who went into the pharmaceutical research industry and his Dad was a cancer researcher at NIH. Both were highly motivated as they had a hard family history of nearly all males dying in either their 20's from testicular cancer or 50's from brain cancer.
My friend told me that the biggest factors affecting survival rates were late detection and physicians aquiescence to patients desires to go moderate on chemotherapy to mitigate the unpleasant side effects.
He said that he has every suspicious lump or knob checked\biopsied and if he ever comes up positive for a cancer it's being excised and followed up with, as he put it, "The nastiest, hair falling out, puking, crawl on my hands and knees, kill me now chemotherapy I can take".
Any physicians, please weigh in on the veracity of this...
Through a combination of late detection and insufficient alarm in response, my mother lost her battle to colon cancer in three months. By the time they found it, it had hit the liver, and that was that.
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