Naperville nonprofit shares lung cancer truth: It happens to nonsmokers, too

What caused Janice Lamb McArdle to get lung cancer never was determined.

But what didn't cause the disease that took her life in 2008 has been at the forefront of her family's minds ever since: smoking.

Janice's death was among the 10 percent to 20 percent of lung cancer fatalities that strike people who never smoked, according to the American Lung Association.

The diagnosis was surprising, despite the cough the otherwise healthy 59-year-old Naperville mother of two suffered for two months before having it checked out.

"I thought, like everyone else, if you've got lung cancer it was probably from smoking or some other carcinogen," her husband, longtime Naperville eye doctor George McArdle, said. "Those who have nonsmoking lung cancer have just been exposed to things they weren't even aware of and didn't intentionally do."

Janice's family learned, through her experience, of the need for greater understanding of nonsmoking lung cancer - both in society and among doctors. So they formed a foundation to work on both fronts, raising awareness among as many people as they can and raising funds for research toward new screenings, treatments and a cure.

"Nonsmoking lung cancer represents a huge percentage of all lung cancers," said McArdle, 70, who heads the Janice Lamb McArdle Cancer Research Foundation, which is hosting a fundraiser at the June 25 White Sox-Oakland A's game.

"Headway is being made in the direction of finding really good treatments for that disease, but a lot more work needs to be done, and there's not a great deal of funding."

Perception problem

When the diagnosis for Janice's cough wasn't a cold or bronchitis but lung cancer, the family's first question was, "Why?"

Janice had never smoked. She wasn't just a nonsmoker, but an active person - a teacher, an artist and a lifelong White Sox fan who wasn't afraid to show her team spirit, even in opposing cities.

She also was a mother to daughters Lindsay and Tracy, now in their 30s.

"It's sort of thought of as a self-induced disease," said Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis, who treats lung cancer patients at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. "Smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer, but we know there are other risk factors for people who haven't smoked."

Among them are high exposure to environmental toxins such as radon, asbestos, secondhand smoke or other air pollutants.

The McArdles had their home tested for radon but were told the levels in their basement were low.

So the "why?" was a puzzle, as it is for many lung cancer patients whose medical history doesn't include smoking.

"Far and away, most never-smokers who are diagnosed with lung cancer don't have an identifiable risk factor," Czerlanis said, "so we don't know exactly what causes lung cancer in these persons."

The McArdles didn't have time to find out during Janice's eight-month fight with an advanced stage of the disease.

Three months after her diagnosis, she felt severe back pain and was told the cancer had spread to her spine. She needed her family by her side.

"You don't dwell long on that," McArdle said about the diagnosis. "You move on to 'We really need to focus on the now and the treatment.'"

Top cancer killer

Had Janice suspected lung cancer and gotten treatment sooner, her family thinks her outcome could have been different.

But people who don't smoke aren't trained to think "lung cancer" when they notice common symptoms such as chest pain, coughing up blood, weight loss and persistent fatigue, Czerlanis said.

Often the disease worsens before treatment can start, so in diagnosis, never-smokers are at a disadvantage.

But in treatment, they sometimes have a leg up. The disease's biology acts differently in nonsmokers, causing more gene mutations than it does in the bodies of people who smoke. Czerlanis said gene mutations give doctors something to target with specific medications that produce better results than traditional chemotherapy.

But no lung cancer treatment is particularly effective. The disease has been the leading cancer killer in women and men since 1987, accounting for about 27 percent of all cancer deaths each year. Last year, it killed an estimated 158,080 people across the country, according to the American Lung Association, and it doesn't leave many long-term survivors.

Survivors, support

Survivor pride can be a big boost for cancer research funding, inspiring benefactors to open their wallets.

Czerlanis said this doesn't happen as easily with lung cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of 17.7 percent - compared with 89.7 percent for breast cancer and 98.9 percent for prostate cancer. When cancer strikes the lungs, it doesn't leave many victims behind to advocate for the importance of research, the need for early detection and the benefits of targeted treatment.

Lung cancer doesn't easily form advocates among the general population, either, where McArdle said many people may still hold the mistaken belief that it's caused only by the conscious ill of smoking cigarettes.

"Unfortunately, because lung cancer doesn't receive the same support that other cancers do, those people who are nonsmoking then pay the price," he said.

He wants to change that, but he doesn't want his work with the foundation he started in his wife's honor to be a battle pitting one type of cancer against another. He only wants the group to make more nonsmokers realize lung cancer is a real risk.

"No one deserves to get cancer," he said, "in any form."

If you go

What: 5th annual Nonsmoking-Related Lung Cancer Awareness Day with the White Sox

When: Tailgate begins at 11 a.m., game begins at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, June 25

Where: Guaranteed Rate Field, 333 W. 35th St., Chicago; tailgate in parking lot A

Who: Benefits the Janice Lamb McArdle Cancer Research Foundation, also known as Jannie's Hope, which supports research on nonsmoking lung cancer; Tailgate includes an appearance by Ron Kittle, 1983 American League Rookie of the Year and a White Sox ambassador

Cost: $25

Info: <a href="http://www.jannieshope.org/2017-white-sox-game-tickets.html">jannieshope.org/</a>2017-white-sox-game-tickets.html or (630) 355-1531