Andrea Kerry never expected a routine heart scan to change her life, but the findings resulted in a lung cancer diagnosis —a shock to the 44-year-old personal trainer, mother of two and lifelong non-smoker. “I felt fine. I had zero symptoms. I would never have known without that calcium test,” Kerry said.
“Andrea’s cancer was found serendipitously, if you will,” said Andrew Arndt, MD, director of thoracic surgery with the Canning Thoracic Institute at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. “She got a cardiac calcium scoring CT that happened to pick this up. If she had not gotten that scan, she would not have qualified for other screening metrics. And there's no telling at what point this would have been diagnosed.”
Kerry underwent a cardiac CT scan last summer at the recommendation of Dhaval Thakkar, MD, a Northwestern Medicine internal medicine physician in Kerry’s hometown of Sycamore. While her heart looked healthy, the scan revealed a small, round nodule in her lung. Dr. Thakkar recommended a follow-up scan in six months.
In February, follow-up imaging showed the nodule had doubled in size. After a biopsy, Daniel Coomes, DO, a pulmonologist with the Canning Thoracic Institute at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital performed a robotic-assisted bronchoscopy, leading to a diagnosis of stage one lung cancer.
“What stands out about Andrea’s diagnosis is how subtle it was,” Dr. Coomes said. “
She had no symptoms, and her heart scan was otherwise normal. The small lung nodule could easily have been overlooked, but timely follow-up allowed us to confirm the diagnosis early and move quickly with care.Dr. Daniel Coomes, DO, Pulmonologist
Kerry was referred to Dr. Arndt for surgery. He recommended minimally invasive robotic surgery to remove the lower lobe of her left lung. “As a young, non-smoker, her lungs looked healthy and had very little scar tissue, which made minimally invasive surgery a great option,” Dr. Arndt said.
Two weeks after her diagnosis, Kerry underwent robotic surgery at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. Pathology results from the lower left lobe removal showed Kerry’s cancer was even smaller than initially thought, measuring 1.7 centimeters and confirming an early-stage diagnosis and no need for additional treatment.
“Andrea has a lot of the favorable things to never have this come back,” Dr. Arndt said. “Early diagnosis shifts lung cancer from being one of the deadliest cancers to one we can often treat effectively and even cure.”
With more women and never-smokers being diagnosed with lung cancer, like Kerry, Northwestern Medicine has launched the Lung Health Center at the Canning Thoracic Institute to detect lung, heart and bone conditions earlier.
“Even if 100 percent of eligible patients get screened, we are still missing most lung cancers because they fall outside conventional screening guidelines based on age and smoking history,” Dr. Arndt said.
The Lung Health Center brings together advanced imaging, multidisciplinary expertise and expanded screening approaches to identify disease earlier, particularly in women and never-smokers. The results of the screenings will be studied and published to inform changes to existing lung cancer screening guidelines.
“We moved to universal age-based screening for breast and colon cancer with tremendous success and we need to move to the same approach for lung cancer,” said Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.
Kerry, who also has Type 1 diabetes, chose to share her diagnosis with her family and friends, as well as on social media, to encourage others to take preventive health screenings seriously.
“I have been sharing all the lung screening tools that Northwestern Medicine is offering,” she said. “I have had multiple clients and family members signing up to get screened. If I can help even one person, that is worth it.”
Less than a month after surgery, Kerry is back exercising daily and has resumed her personal training business. “It makes me emotional because sometimes you take things for granted. You take your health for granted and then all of a sudden you’re sick and it really changes how you look at things,” Kerry said. “Thank goodness I prioritize my health.”
References:
1. Dr. Andrew T. Arndt, MD
https://www.nm.org/doctors/1184880452/andrew-thomas-arndt-md
2. https://www.nm.org/conditions-and-care-areas/cancer-care/lung-cancer-care/lung-cancer-screening-program/lung-health-center-form
3. Dr. Daniel Coomes, DO, Pulmonologist
(Newswise/ARC)