Posted on 08/09/2005 8:42:24 AM PDT by Millee
Peter Jennings was one of 170,000 Americans diagnosed with lung cancer each year. It is the most common form of cancer, responsible for 28 percent of all cancer deaths.
Jennings died Sunday, at the age of 67.
Treatments are few once lung cancer is diagnosed, but there is one very obvious, but often very difficult, way to reduce your risk of getting lung cancer -- quit smoking, reported WCVB-TV in Boston.
News of Jennings' death has been a jolt for some smokers.
"You hear about it all the time, it just never sinks in, but for some reason (Monday) it just sunk in. I've got to do something about that soon," said smoker Kraig Ravioli.
"Now that he's gone, it makes it seem real and I can't get it out of my head today," added smoker Janet Caputo.
Jennings' voice was already weak when he made his last broadcast, a sign that his cancer had advanced.
"Lung cancer metastasizes, or spreads, very quickly so that by the time it's found, it's already spread throughout the body," said Dr. Nancy Rigotti, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Jennings gave up smoking 20 years ago, but had a brief relapse following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"But then he quit again, and I think the message, perhaps his legacy, is that it is possible to quit smoking, and you should keep trying, and it's never too late," Rigotti said.
Helen Hodges said she was a closet smoker for years, only lighting up around other smokers, she recalls.
"I thought it was a dirty habit and I was embarrassed that I smoked," she said.
She finally kicked the habit several years ago, but not soon enough. Last fall she was diagnosed with lung cancer and she didn't see it coming, reported WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
"One day I just bent down at work and I had an excruciating pain underneath my rib cage," Hodges said. "I went to the emergency room and they told me that I had pneumonia and a tumor in that lung."
Dr. Shakun Malik, who directs the lung cancer program at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., said lung cancer is a disease that often doesn't show warning signs until it's too late.
The long-term survival rate for lung cancer patients is low and the expected five-year survival rate is only 15 percent, medical experts said.
"We have a lot of new drugs and new vaccines coming into trial every day," Malik said.
Leslie Saporetti quit last year after 30 years of smoking cigarettes.
"I was smoking a pack and a half to two packs a day," she said.
Saporetti started smoking when she was 13 -- long before cigarettes had warning labels. Her mother and sister both died of cancer, but even that wasn't enough to get her to stop.
"One day I was looking at my daughter, and I realized she was as old as I was when I started smoking, and I just couldn't imagine her holding a cigarette and smoking herself," she said.
Saporetti got help at a smoking cessation study at Massachusetts General Hospital -- a combination of medication and counseling -- and lowered her risk of developing lung cancer.
"A lot of smokers think, 'It's too late. I've smoked too long, too heavily. I'm too old. It doesn't matter,'" Rigotti said. "But that's not the case. On average, when a smoker quits, they gain 10 years of life. That's a lot."
"I will never smoke again," Saporetti said.
She hasn't smoked in almost 10 months. She said that quitting was the hardest thing she's ever done, and she has some advice for smokers of any age.
"I think they should just know that it is really hard to stop, but it can be done, and that there are a lot of programs to help them and to just keep trying," she said.
Several new stop-smoking drugs are under development, but there are ways now available to quit. Call the American Cancer Society and speak to a health professional directly about the options at (800) ACS-2345.
>>"I've got to do something about that soon," said smoker Kraig Ravioli. <<
You might do something about that name, while you're at it.
Congratulations.
You sound like my dad who quit smoking 8/1/68. Cold turkey. Pall Mall straights, a pack a day. No way he'll ever start again. Despises the smell and the filth.
Although he eventually gained and kept 40+ lbs. he didn't need -- food tastes so-o-o much better -- he's generally healthy today at the age of 80. Doctors say after so many years, it's as if he never smoked at all.
Anyone remember when the actor who played Hamilton Berger, (the prosecutor on the Perry Mason show) contracted Lung Cancer?
He did a commercial stating publicly he had lung cancer and urged peole not to smoke. He died not long after.
At least Jennings can now play cards with Edward R. Murrow.
Sarah Brady! Take a number and wait!
How about having them hand out large quantities of free samples at Democrat meetings?
Yule Brenner (sp?) did that as well. I recall those commercials vividly. Lucky for me, I never started the habit, even though at the time, both of my parents smoked.
We could pump into their meetings the odor of cigarette smoke to coerce the current smokers to have another butt.
21 years, one month, 9 days. But who's counting?
Should be noted - I know of several folks who had quit for a long time, then picked them back up only to be diagnosed within two years of restarting and then losing the battle. I guess we can't know if they would have succumbed if they hadn't restarted, but it does give one a pause for thought. If you have stopped for any amount of time, restarting for even a little while may be the catalyst that tips you over the edge.
My mom quit smoking on Oct 12, 1974, when I was twelve.
She quit because she stopped breathing, forever. I've never touched tobacco though I did take a few tokes of the odd joint or two in high school.
Some people smoke and die young. Others can smoke and live to a ripe old age. Your choice.
Personally my own vice of overeating helped to give me diabetes. I have a friend who found out at the age of 38
that he had diabetes--he was in a high risk group (black),
overweight, and getting to be almost 40 ("fat-family-
forty"). Went into a coma for a couple days because his
blood sugar (he didn't realize he had diabetes yet)
was sky-high. Doctors told him the only way he survived
was because he didn't smoke or drink.
My dad had a co-worker who was a vegetarian but the guy
wound up dying anyway (in his late 50s) because he smoked.
Again, some people get lung cancer, some don't. Your choice, and I don't want to deprive anyone of their right to
smoke. (I even think that bars/restaurants go too far,
in terms of anti-smoking legislation. But I will say that back in the old days when we had "smoke filled bars",
I had to leave after awhile because I got sick of the
smell.
We ought to have bars/restaurants that either allow
smoking or don't. You want to smoke, go to the ones
that allow it. You want smoke-free, go to the smoke-
free ones. Fair enough?
My father-in-law died of fibrotosis and emphasema of the lungs after smoking many years. You DON'T want to die that way!
On the other hand my dad, uncle, great grandfather all smoked all of their lives and died of heart attack, old age and strangulation.
You lights up and takes yo' chance but like gambling, I'll pass!
I remember seeing an ad that stated "Cancer. The only thing that ever kicked John Wayne's a55." Or something to that effect. I thought it was pretty catchy.
>>high risk group
oh, forgot to mention that his mother and grandmother also had diabetes. (also: One of my aunts died recently. She found out she had diabetes and the doctor told her one of her legs had to be amputated. "Well, I guess I'm just gonna die," she said, opting to die, at 70, instead of losing one of her legs. But I digress.)
the longest I had quit was 4 years and then returned - five times... until 15 years ago. Cold turkey every time and glad I did. Never give up.
What's the old saying: Cigarettes are the only thing that, when used properly, will kill you.
Again, not everyone will die of lung cancer but the odds are increased.
MAD magazine once did an ad parody. Original ad: If it wasn't for Winston, I wouldn't smoke. Their version: If it wasn't for Winsom, I wouldn't smoke. I also wouldn't cough. And my breath wouldn't smell, and my teeth wouldn't be discolored, and...
(At the end, the "surgeon general's warning" said something like "The Surgeon General is amazed that cancer (and other things) weren't even mentioned in this ad."
Smoke 'em if you got 'em. :)
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