An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh

Dear Rush,

You may not understand the magnitude of the initial impact and following aftershock waves from your recent public acknowledgement about your lung cancer diagnosis. From the moment of your announcement, the media has been spreading the news and featuring medical experts to share information about lung cancer with their audiences.

Our world is turned upside down

Like me -- and nearly a quarter of a million Americans each year -- your world was turned upside down and your life, to a certain degree, was put on hold when the doctor said, “You have lung cancer.”

Whether it is because they fear judgment or they feel guilt or shame for behavior that may have contributed to their diagnosis, many patients and their loved ones will omit the word “lung.” They just say they have “cancer” without specifying they have lung cancer. This is especially true among the famous. You, however, named it. Thank you for your honesty and your openness in doing so.

My call to advocacy

When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005, advocacy became my calling. You have a different calling. Even so, I hope you will use your platform to share uncommon facts with your 20 million listeners. You see, there are things that need to be said that, frankly, are not being said. These facts that need to be heard are potentially lifesaving.

Being a lung cancer advocate is tricky business. On one hand, we want to jolt the uninformed public with the shocking facts we learned upon our own diagnosis. We also want to throw a lifeline to those at risk. Yet, importantly, we want to offer encouragement and hope to others facing this disease. There truly is much to be hopeful for.

There's good news and bad news

Rush, I understand you are the Mayor of Realville. So, let’s be frank. There’s good news and bad. First, the good news.

There has never been a better time to be diagnosed with lung cancer. It’s true. Screening, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and many other advances in surgery and radiation are causing lung cancer patients to live longer and better lives.

Screening and early detection are saving lives

You may have seen this recent article. The American Cancer Society directly attributed a recent overall drop in cancer deaths to lung cancer, stating “the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics going back to 1930...is absolutely driven by lung cancer.” (“U.S. cancer death rate drops by largest annual margin ever, report says,” Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, Jan. 8, 2020.)

After years of advocating for early detection of lung cancer, screening is now approved and recommended for people considered at high risk. Early detection significantly increases survival rates and is the best hope for a cure. This is great news for the people at high risk for lung cancer, which includes current and former smokers ages 55 and older with a long-term smoking history. To qualify, candidates must have at least a 30-pack-year smoking history. Pack years are calculated by multiplying the number of years a person smoked by the number of packs smoked daily. (For example, someone who smoked two packs a day for 20 years would have a 40 pack-year smoking history.) Former smokers who quit within the past 15 years also qualify for screening, if they meet the age and smoking history criteria. Screening is covered 100 percent by most insurance, including Medicare.

Even people diagnosed with lung cancer don't meet the screening requirements

Screening is far from perfect -- but it’s a start. While screening has the untapped potential of saving many lives, unfortunately, more than half of the people diagnosed do not meet the screening criteria. Even so, the at-risk public is uninformed about screening. Sadly, so are many of their doctors. According to the CDC, only 4 percent of those eligible are being screened.

Continue reading Dusty's An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh, Part 2.