Denise Cutlip

This last year and a half (or so) the world has been embraced the concept cancer patients call the ‘New Normal’. In a short period of time the world changed...

Patient-to-patient boards on social media websites can be a real boon to newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. More often than I can remember I read the words of a newly...

When diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer I was told patients cannot donate blood. The concern, if I understand it correctly, is that there are likely to be circulating tumor...

My first thought was for my family. At first, the words stunned. "Looks like advanced lung cancer, we’ll know more when we can get a biopsy." When the words stopped...

There are several things that I wish medical oncologists would share with us before we receive treatment. These are not life and death issues but they do tend to contribute...

If you saw me in the street you would never suspect I have cancer. You would see a slightly overweight senior citizen who likes to walk her dog and work...

When first diagnosed with lung cancer I refrained from doing internet searches, not because I feared learning about my cancer, but, because I had many warnings about being safe online...

I never used to believe that we are put in certain places at a specific time “FOR A REASON”. I truly believed there was not a Great Design. For me, cancer...

The whole purpose of treatment is to extend life. We do not go through chemotherapy and radiation or surgery just to sit at home in front of the tv waiting...

In October of 2010, I received my stage 4 lung adenocarcinoma diagnosis. My prognosis then was 10-15 months which I began living in three-month increments. That's the time between each thoracic...

Cliches become useful because they reference important life lessons and truths in just a few words. There are two cliches that embody the spirit of Survivorship to me. There are...

"We’ll see you in three months." What? But I’ve been seeing you every week, sometimes 3-5 days a week for months! What do you mean three months? What am I...

I am angry. Angry that the parents of a seven year old had to beg for two years to get a CT until she was diagnosed stage 4 at age...

Sitting in the emergency department. Ebb and flow of patient care flowing around me. Dramas big and small. Doctors in hushed tones sharing results and recovery directions. Nurses doing the...

October marked 8 years of my life living with stage 4 lung cancer. At stage 4 all treatment is intended to be palliative rather than curative. The goal of treatment...

A pulmonary function test (PFT) is done as part of the staging and diagnosis of lung cancer. At a patient education summit sponsored by Lungevity, a pulmonologist recommended that patients...

Advocacy chose me. It seems I had no say about it when lung cancer entered my life. When diagnosed with my cancer I tried to hide. I did not want...

The concept of long-term survival was not even a consideration when Gregory Kalemkarian, M.D. started his oncology practice. Dr Kalemkarian spoke to us at a Lung Cancer 101 program earlier...

The cancer is going to do what the cancer is going to do. I can not control how it will respond to treatment. I can control my reaction to it...