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."
I should have been more clear that I was not referring to illegal behaviors (although you yourself used speeding as one example, which is both illegal, and, I would argue, can directly affect others).
You basically argued that smoking was not immoral as long as you implicitly accepted the risks associated with the pleasure you are receiving from that activity. Could you not say the same thing about engaging in promiscuous pre-marital sex, for example? As long as you implicitly accept the risk for contracting STD's or pregnancy or emotional distress (and assuming you're not hurting anyone in the process), then there is nothing wrong with this behavior morally. Right?
I'm actually not necessarily disagreeing with your statement that smoking is not immoral. I'm just trying to point out that your proof is not absolute or infallible. Different people of different religions and different persuasions will have different definitions of what is "moral" to them, which may well differ from your personal morality.
Must've hit a nerve.
I'm so happy for you! Please don't ever go back to those nasty, hideous things. Enjoy your returning senses of taste and smell. Go out to the country and breathe in the fresh air! Have fun spending/saving all the money you're not wasting on nicotine addiction. Be free from the brown film that used to cover your walls, windows, clothes, and hair. This is life as it was meant to be lived!
You know, of course, that success in quitting cigarettes is dependent on your wrapping yourself around being free from them, just as you used to plan your life around having them. I quit over 30 years ago. It was really difficult at first, but got easier as I went. I used an awful lot of breath mints for about 4 months, to get me over the hump. It worked for me. I just made sure I always had the mints around. When a craving hit, I'd pop a mint. Soon my brain was associating the craving with a mint taste instead of a nicotine fix. Eventually I cut those down as well. It wasn't easy, but I was determined and stuck to it.
The backstory was, I was in love with a guy who wouldn't kiss a smoker (said it was like licking a dirty ashtray). Talk about motivation! BTW, he and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary. Could I have missed that for the "pleasure" of smoking? How tragic that would've been! Yikes!
God bless you and give you new exhiliration every day!
HLL, have you any updates on this story? Just wondering how Mr. Jennings is doing.
I spoke to someone ealier today who saw Jennings last year and said that he looked small and horrible. We are talking about it at the water cooler, but as far as I know anyone who has seen him in the last 9 months has said that he just looked ragged and ill. I feel awful for him.
No. Adultery/fornication is explicitly forbidden in the Ten Commandments (my source for moral authority). Smoking or its analog is not.
Wrong. You may not physically harm them, but sex outside marriage harms both parties psychologically and spiritually. You can believe that or not, but a lot of people do believe it.
As long as you're not blowing smoke in the face of another, smoking only harms the smoker.
I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying that some people may still find it morally wrong. The Catholic Church, for example, considers abuse of tobacco to be sinful. Now, the catechism does not define "abuse", so you will get varying opinions from those in the church as to what exactly that means. My priest in elementary school felt that anyone who was addicted was engaged in "abuse", and thereby sinning.
Did he start at the age of 13?.
I think the vast majority of smokers will tell you that they know in their heart of hearts it's wrong. The ones who don't are engaging in denial.
Neither is huffing crack, but I don't suppose you're going to tell me that's okay by the Bible.
My brother just called. His friend, age 32, just died from throat cancer. He had just gone through chemo and surgery where they cut almost everything out of him from ear to shoulder.
Yes, he was a heavy smoker.
Thank You!I never could understand the link here by some folks that being pro-tobacco is somehow"conservative".When I was in high school it was the little know nothing hoodlums who smoked.In college,it was the liberal psuedo sophisticates.
I am ANTI_smoking to the nth degree.If that makes me a liberal,then so be it!
Drunkeness is the analog. What's the Bible say about that?
What concerns me are those evangelical protestants who condemn smoking and alcohol consumption but think nothing of shopping at Wal-Mart on the Lords day - a blatant flouting of the Fourth Commandment.
I would say that not destroying the body that God gave you is a conservative value.
What a tragedy. So young. So stupid. So senseless.
Of course, all the nicotine addicts will probably say it was because he wore an asbestos ski mask or was a coal miner or something.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.