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Aug 29, 2009 5:58 pm US/Central
Lung Cancer Research May Lead To Early Detection
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
He's a former college football star, track runner, and all-around sports enthusiast. He never smoked a day in his life, yet he still found himself battling lung cancer. Now, there's research being done in North Texas to find out why non-smokers are getting the disease.
Jerrold and Rhonda Dash of Fort Worth have always cherished their time together as a family. They've been married for six years and have two little girls.
"I thank God everyday," said Rhonda Dash. "We understand that tomorrow's not guaranteed for anybody."
The Dash's say they came to that understanding over the last few years. Their family was almost torn apart by something hiding inside Jerrold's body. For several years, he had been suffering from a number of respiratory symptoms. Dash had been diagnosed with bronchitis numerous times, but it wasn't until February of 2006 when he finally got the true answer.
"He told me you have cancer," Dash remembers of his doctor's visit.
At the age of 32 and just one month after the birth of his second daughter, Dash was battling stage 4 lung cancer. Dash says his doctor offered little hope. He immediately turned to the internet for research, but didn't find hope there either.
"You won't survive, you'll die within this amount of time," he recalls.
Dash, who is a former track runner and college football star, says he's never smoked a day in his life. He worked out all the time, and says he tried to eat as healthy as possible. That's why this diagnosis came as such a shock.
"At first, I went through denial and anger," he said. "If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone."
For Rhonda, the diagnosis hit a little too close to home. Her mother had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and passed away just six months later.
"To hear it again, it was difficult," she said.
Dash went from being able to run seven miles a day to barely being able to walk. He went through months of intense chemotherapy treatments before he was selected for a rare double lung transplant in 2007 at Stanford University in California.
"I just remember crying and jumping up and down," Mrs. Dash remembers upon hearing the news.
But, the celebration was short lived. In January of this year, Dash's cancer returned.
"It's disappointing because I was hoping I could get to the five year mark before it came back," he said.
Dr. Adi Gazdar, professor of pathology at U.T. Southwestern, is studying lung cancer in people like Jerrold who have never smoked a day in their lives.
"It's the 7th leading cause of cancer deaths in the world," Dr. Gazdar said. "In this country, we have very little clues on how to screen for these people, how to assess their risk, and how to diagnose these tumors early."
Dr. Gazdar joins four other cancer researchers from Johns Hopkins, the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center, the University of Southern California, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to find out why more life-time non-smokers are getting the disease.
"There must be additional genetic factors plus environmental factors or lifestyle factors that predispose to this disease," Dr. Gazdar said.
His hope is to find a genetic marker that could eventually lead to early detection or even preventative methods.
"It's a very exciting time in cancer research," he said.
After another surgery to remove the cancer in his new lung, Jerrold Dash is now back in remission. He's still in recovery and says he's yet to run his first mile. But, he remains steadfast on hitting that goal. In the meantime, Dash and his family continue to grow close, taking pride in every moment they spend together. They hope his case can help these researchers learn more about the disease, and they offer this advice:
"If they do get frustrated, they can just send me their address, and we'll send them a Christmas card so
The research is part of a $2,000,000 study being funded by the
National Cancer Institute and
The Canary Foundation. To learn more about the research,
click here. You can also read more about Jerrold's fight by following his blog.
Click here to read that. There's also more information about the fight against lung cancer in never-smokers on the
Beverly Fund website.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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