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A Patient Story

Program: Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery for Lung Cancer
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Andrew Schorr:

First, I want you to meet somebody who benefitted from that early detection, and also benefitted from a minimally-invasive approach at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and that’s Charles Davis.  He joins us from North Chicago.  He’s an architect there.  Charles, let’s go back a couple of years.  You were having, over time, bouts of bronchitis and then pneumonia.  What did your primary care doctor recommend at that time? 

Charles:

He told me that I should go to get a CT scan, a spiral CT scan that had just become available, and they could identify cancers very early.  And he thought given that I’d smoked for 28 years, even though it had been 20 years since then, that I should have this test, this scan. 

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  We should make that point.  There are people who feel, well, I quit smoking two decades ago, like you did, that I’m not at risk.  But there still is a risk.  We should point out also right off the bat that you don’t have to be a smoker to develop lung cancer.  People are exposed to other chemicals and agents and secondhand smoke, and sometimes we don’t even know the cause, but certainly smokers and former smokers are at higher risk. 

So you had the CT scan.  At that time did it show anything? 

Charles:

Well, it was just enough to create suspicion that there was something there.  They couldn’t tell what it was, but there was sort of a smudge at one place in the lungs. 

Andrew Schorr:

So they recommended follow-up in six months or so.  You had another one.  What did that show? 

Charles:

Same thing.  A little bit of change but not much.  Still couldn’t tell what it was.

Andrew Schorr:

Follow it some more, and the next time what happened? 

Charles:

Well, after that second one my primary physician sent me to a pulmonologist who reviewed the scans and agreed that they still couldn’t tell.  He said I should have another one in another six months, which I did.

Andrew Schorr:

And while there was something seen, of course at that point we didn’t know was it a malignancy, I know you eventually had a biopsy where they look at the cells, and in fact that did show cancer, correct? 

Charles:

Yes, that’s correct.  Also after the third CT scan they could see a change, a clear change in what was the tumor and some structure.  I saw it.  It looked to me like roots inside something.

Andrew Schorr:

Well, the good news is we’re still really seeing it in one spot and small.  So eventually you connect with the surgeons at Northwestern, and Dr. Alberto de Hoyos, who is the director of the Center for Robotic and Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery.  And at Northwestern, most of the time, maybe 80 percent of the time for lung cancer when they do surgery, they do it in a minimally-invasive way, which we’ll describe.  You had that, right, Charles?  You had that minimally invasive, they call it video-assisted thoracic surgery or VATS.  You had that, right? 

Charles:

That’s correct.

Andrew Schorr:

And so, you know, it’s scary to be diagnosed with lung cancer and scary to have surgery.  Was this a big deal? 

Charles:

Well, I thought it was going in.  About two weeks after the surgery I reconsidered, and I said, this is practically nothing.  This wasn’t so serious.  I don’t know what I was so worried about, because everything went so smoothly.

Andrew Schorr:

Well, it’s great it went smoothly.  So the truth is with open surgery, or thoracotomy, somebody might be in the hospital five days or a week, maybe weeks to recover, many weeks.  For you, how long were you in the hospital? 

Charles:

48 hours after surgery I was out.

Andrew Schorr:

They were putting you out, and I understand your wife was questioning that, saying he’s just had lung cancer surgery. 

Charles:

Right.  Exactly.  Dr. de Hoyos said, well, I can cure what you catch at home, but I don’t know if I can cure what you might catch at the hospital.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  Right.  Well, we always worry about infection, that’s true.  So you went home.  Now, here we are, you know, a couple years later.  How active are you, and how’s your breathing? 

Charles:

Well, I think I’m probably 98 percent of what I was before, but I’m healthy and enjoying life.

Andrew Schorr:

Taking no medicines? 

Charles:

No.

Andrew Schorr:

That’s great. 

Charles:

Except for my prostate.

Andrew Schorr:

Okay.  Well, we’re all getting older.  And then related to your level of activity, do you walk and other exercise? 

Charles:

Yeah, I walk quite a bit and I do free weights and yoga. I’m probably more active now than I was before the surgery, actually.

Andrew Schorr:

So you’re a happy guy? 

Charles:

Yeah, totally. 

Andrew Schorr:

And a lucky guy. 

Charles:

I don’t think I deserve to be so lucky as I was.

Andrew Schorr:

Good for you.  Let’s meet your surgeon.  As I mentioned, that’s Dr. Alberto de Hoyos, who is the director of the Center for Robotic Minimally-Invasive Thoracic Surgery.  First of all, Dr. de Hoyos, I know this is a happy story when you can use with your team there it can be identified early and then you can use a minimally-invasive approach and hear a patient like Mr. Davis who is back to a full life? 

Dr. de Hoyos:

Correct.  Mr. Davis is one of the fortunate patients that was identified with a tumor at an early stage.  It is still unfortunate that quite a large number of patients present with advanced tumors, and they cannot be treated surgically, but in patients that present with early-stage tumors we can offer this type of operation where the portion of the lung can be removed with minimally-invasive techniques.

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