IF YOU’RE A FORMER SMOKER, READ THIS EARLY SCREENING IS AVAILABLE— AND IMPORTANT—FOR THOSE AT HIGH RISK FOR LUNG CANCER.
P
atti Wolff, 75, of Toms River, laughs when she’s told she’s the “poster child” for early cancer screening. But she knows how lucky she is. When it comes to cancer, prevention is best, and catching it early—when
there’s the best chance of successful treatment—is a close second. Patti was doubly lucky when screening caught not one, but two different cancers. The result was that both of her cancers were caught so early that she didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation to treat them.
HIGH-RISK HISTORY
STUART LEITNER, MD
Healthy Together
KILLOL PATEL, MD
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SUBROTO PAUL, MD
The first screening was a routine colonoscopy. Because Patti knew she had
a family history that put her at higher risk—her mother and grandmother had both had colon cancer—Patti was conscientious about having the test on the recommended schedule, even though she’d never had any symptoms. “In 2016, my gastroenterologist found cancer when doing a routine colonoscopy,” Patti recalls. “They caught it early, and I had surgery to get it taken out. I didn’t have to have any chemotherapy or radiation.” That was a wonderful outcome. However, her medical oncologist, Stuart Leitner, MD, of Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (CBMC), was
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