The Road to Recovery: Unlocking the Best Treatment Options for Lung Cancer
By d-mars.com News Provider
While November is Lung Cancer Awareness month, it never hurts to be aware of the options upon learning the news. Knowledge alone can help anyone among your family, circle of friends, associates, etc.
You’re an avid runner and cyclist. You eat well and don’t smoke. Overall, you’re doing all the right things when it comes to your health. Then you get diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. You know you’re not invincible, but lung cancer didn’t even seem like a possibility.
This scenario reflects Kirk Smith’s reality. In December 2013, he went out for a three-mile run from his office. As someone who races marathons and triathlons, this was supposed to be a breeze. He didn’t make it a mile before a sharp pain in the left side of his chest and very shallow breathing stopped him and forced him to walk back.
He decided to drive to the ER and was held overnight for a series of scans. Later that same month, he was diagnosed with stage IIIB lung cancer at 51 years old, meaning his cancer had spread into the lymph nodes of his chest,
“The whole experience was surreal,” said Kirk. “I lived a very active life. Lung cancer wasn’t even on my radar.”
Kirk doesn’t smoke, which is one of the reasons he was so shocked, but he quickly learned that this is a big misconception about the disease.
“If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer. Smoking is a risk factor, but there are many people with lung cancer who are nonsmokers,” said Kirk. “There is a terrible stigma around lung cancer that it’s the person’s fault. This is likely why lung cancer gets the least funding of all the major cancers, even though it kills the most people.”
A map to lung cancer treatments
Kirk decided to take an optimistic and pragmatic approach to treating his lung cancer, understanding that at this stage, it is unlikely to be cured. His treatment journey mirrors the giant leaps happening in lung cancer research and care over the last 10 years.
Kirk’s care team understood the importance of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP), or biomarker testing, and made sure to test him for actionable biomarkers at the start of his treatment journey. When he was positive for the ALK alteration, he started out on a targeted therapy that allowed him to
race in a half-marathon less than two months after beginning treatment.
However, just like many people’s experiences treating lung cancer, Kirk has had to constantly monitor his condition and adjust. His treatments changed, for example, when his liver enzymes reached dangerous levels. Later, when tests revealed the cancer had spread to his brain - known as brain metastases - he switched treatments again.
“I have a brilliant health care team and I’ve made it a point that they get to know me as a person as well as a patient,” said Kirk. “Find a doctor who you believe in that also believes in you.”
Before making any treatment decisions, such as moving to a different targeted therapy, Kirk’s oncologist ordered CGP to understand how his cancer had changed. Since 2017, he has benefitted from Guardant Health’s Guardant360® blood tests for CGP, which have provided actionable insights and allowed him to get access to newly approved targeted therapies,
“Biomarker testing has been the difference between life and death for me and has allowed me to maintain my quality of life. It’s like a map that guides my treatment at every stage. Everyone who has been diagnosed with late-stage cancer should ask their doctors about these tests,” Smith says.
Kirk’s life today
It has been 9 years since Kirk received his late-stage cancer diagnosis.
He is a passionate supporter of cancer research and currently serves as the president of the patient advocacy group ALK Positive. He believes that being able to continue his active lifestyle and preserve his quality of life is a testament to the advancements and progress made in lung cancer research.
“Through breakthroughs in research, targeted therapies and biomarker testing, I believe this disease can no longer be a death sentence and instead be a manageable disease,” he said.
Old Folks Saying...
Do You Have McDonald’s Money?
Ahhh, nothing like being with your parent(s) during a car ride and realizing ¬– you’re hungry. You might have the munchies too but perhaps that appetite is based on something else. No less, you’re aware that there is food already at the house, or something you can make. However, you don’t desire either of those options. Instead, you ask your parent(s), “Can I get something to eat?” Your mom might respond with “We got food at the house?” You come right back with, “Can we get some McDonalds?” Finally, it happens. Those five words, “Do you have McDonald’s money?” hits you like a ton of bricks as you feel shut down from the satisfaction of fast food. Now, it can go two ways. Your parent(s) might cave in because they didn’t want to be at the house either; you just gave them a reason to join you. Or they stick to their guns and stand on that firm “no” as their decision. Once your’re home, that left over spaghetti becomes your homie, lover, and friend.
Did You Know...
In 1905. Georgia native Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded, edited, and published the Chicago Defender, for decades the country’s dominant African American newspaper. Through the pages of the Defender, Abbott exercised enormous influence on the rise of the Black community in Chicago, Illinois, and on national African American culture.
The paper started out with a 25-cent investment and a four-page pamphlet, increasing circulation with every edition. The Defender played an important role in encouraging African Americans to migrate from the south for better economic opportunities. The success of the paper made Abbott one of the first African American self-made millionaires.
His foundation helped to give birth to numerous publications including Jet, Ebony, Black Enterprise, Right On!, Essence and more.
$63 Million in School Grants Announced by Department of Education
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior
The U.S. Department of Education announced $63 million in new five-year Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) grants to support 42 local educational agencies, non-profits, and other public or private organizations and institutions of higher education working to expand existing community schools or to establish new programs in eight new states and territories.
Those locations include Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico.
Additionally, the District of Columbia Public Schools received a $492,000 capacity building and development grant.
The Department of Education said it is working to create new programs or expand existing community schools,
“Meeting the needs of the whole child is essential to help America’s students grow academically and improve their well-being,” officials said in a news release.
DOE officials said that’s why the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to supporting community school models across the country, which provide comprehensive support to the nation’s students, their families, and communities.
They said community schools meet the unique needs of the neighborhoods they serve by bringing services into school buildings through local non-profit, private sector, and agency partnerships.
This includes services such as high-quality tutoring, health, mental health and nutrition services, and high-
quality early learning programs, among others, for students and the community.
“Community Schools are an essential component of accelerating our students’ learning and supporting their social, emotional, and mental health, and deepening community partnerships,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
“At the height of the pandemic, community schools
connected students and families with vital nutrition assistance, mental, physical, and other health services, and expanded learning opportunities,” Cardona added.
He continued:
“This work continues today because we know that students learn best when there is a comprehensive and holistic approach to meeting their needs. I am thrilled that through the historic investment we’re announcing now, the Department is funding the largest cohort of grantees in the history of this grant program. This represents a huge step toward the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of doubling the number of FullService Community Schools across the country and raising the bar for our support of children.”
This year’s grant competition received the largest number of applications in the program’s history, which
A Guide to Online Higher Education: Saving Money and Time with Affordable Options
ncreasing tuition and mounting student debt is making a college degree more difficult to achieve. While policymakers are implementing debt forgiveness, nothing is addressing the root cause of the problem - traditional colleges and universities have built unsustainable cost models that can only be supported with ever increasing tuition. This leads to students believing they have no options, so they continue to willingly incur mountains of debt.
While some students choose to forgo college or dismiss the value of a graduate degree, many students are discovering a better way. One that doesn’t sacrifice the proven value of education to provide careerenhancing skills and advancement. Fully online institutions provide low-cost tuition models, largely due to lower operational costs, without sacrificing quality of education. Further, online higher education remains an affordable and attainable option for many students or working adults wanting to advance their career paths affordably.
High-cost education is often confused with quality, especially regarding four-year or advanced college degrees. But with historic levels of student debt combined with a significant shortage of skilled job applicants, isn’t it time to redefine how we measure the worth of a college degree? Online higher education institutions offer degrees that are significantly less expensive than traditional colleges or universities and offer substantial value and quality. A reflection of that
officials said showed how important it is to have a support system in place to address students’ social, emotional, and mental health needs.
The new grantees are committed to implementing the four pillars of community schools, including expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities, and integrated student supports that address out-of-school barriers to learning.
It also includes active family and community engagement, and collaborative leadership and practices.
The White House also released a new toolkit that shows how other government agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, can help.
The announcement comes while Cardona visited Turner Elementary School in Washington D.C., one of two District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) where FSCS funding will ensure a strong pipeline of services.
The administration said it would further demonstrate the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to providing a high-quality education for all students.
DCPS is one of the 42 local educational agencies, non-profits, or other public or private entities and institutions of higher education to receive this funding.
The Department conducted robust outreach to expand interest, and almost half of grantees in this cohort are first-time grantees, DOE officials stated.
“Notably, this cohort includes the first set of grantees in the history of the program that have expressed a commitment to scaling the community school model across the grantee’s state. With this award, the Department has awarded FSCS grants in 20 states and territories.”
Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association
value and quality is within graduation rate statistics where the norm for institutions is around 46 to 64 percent, according to Education Data Initiative and the National Center for Education Statistics.
The New York Times’ The Daily podcast recently aired “The College Pricing Game,” that suggested federal student aid programs, which are covered under Title IV, unfortunately exacerbate the affordability of education. In fact, one could argue that these programs have caused the student debt crisis because they have made students and parents desensitized to cost. At the same time, these federal loan programs incentivize institutions to raise tuition year after year. Student loan forgiveness, which has been touted as a potential saving grace, is at most a temporary solution and doesn’t truly address the central issue: traditional colleges and universities are too expensive.
Tuition, fees and housing at many state-funded universities range from $10,000 to almost $30,000 a year, depending on whether students are in-state or outof-state. Including student loans and loss of income, the cost of a bachelor’s degree can exceed $400,000.
Affordable, accessible higher education solution
Fully online and non-traditional colleges and universities are filling that widening gap within the fractured education system, allowing students from all backgrounds and financial means to achieve success.
Leading online college American College of Education (ACE) breaks the link between the cost of tuition and the quality and accessibility of education. ACE’s funding is rooted in how much it costs to deliver
a quality education rather than the maximum amount of government loans accruable through Title IV.
Global insights from HolonIQ Smart Estimates are projecting online education to grow by more than 12 percent annually through 2025. While it’s easy to directly correlate this growth with the COVID-19 pandemic, online (not remote) education has been growing for years, and there is a larger shift that needs to be recognized and addressed. Higher education should be accessible rather than exclusive and online colleges are pioneering the use of technology to increase academic quality and reduce cost. Without significant real estate and overhead expenses, these universities offer high-quality education programs, from microcredentials to doctoral degrees, at a fraction of the cost of traditional colleges and universities. With affordable programs, fully online universities offer graduates the ability to cover the cost of their degrees within the first year or two of graduating.
“ACE has an unwavering commitment to putting students first, and this involves intentional attention to their concerns from cost to quality to flexibility,” said Geordie Hyland, ACE President and CEO. “Our low cost doesn’t require sacrificing quality, and we want to be a solution to the studentdebt crisis and not a contributor. At the end of the day, many of our students graduate with minimal or no debt while earning a quality education that enhances their career development and contributions to society. We hope our efforts can inspire other institutions to do the same.”
Source: Brand Point
