VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — George Barlow from Virginia Beach has no shortage of stories over the years, but his most important one might be about a conversation that saved his life.
"My lifestyle was kind of wild," Barlow said. "I [was going to] Vegas or to the islands."
Barlow smoked for 20 years but put down the cigarettes in 2023 after a routine screening with his doctor revealed something concerning.
"She goes, ‘Wow, I see something I don't like,’" Barlow said. "She saw something on my right lung."
After more tests, doctors confirmed Barlow had stage one lung cancer.
"I'm thinking, ‘oh god, that's like the kiss of death,’" Barlow said.
"I was talking with my wife, who I undoubtedly got the best wife in the world, I really do. And she goes, ‘Well, we'll just have to fight it,’" he said.
And they did. Within a month's time, Barlow had surgery and doctors removed the tumor. He said he was home recovering two days after the surgery.
"I did not have to get chemo. I did not have to get radiation. I mean, again, I was very fortunate that they took care of all of that," Barlow said.
Dr. Sherif El-Mahdy, a lung and critical care physician at Sentara Medical Group, was one of the doctors who treated Barlow. Despite lung cancer remaining the leading cause of cancer death in the US, he said early detection and targeted therapy is saving people's lives.
"We're really shifting the paradigm of lung cancer from what used to be a very grim diagnosis to something that is more hopeful," Dr. El-Mahdy said.
Dr. El-Mahdy said even though low-dose CT scans are not for everyone, more people are getting them.
LDCT screening is recommended for people who meet the following criteria:
- Aged 50 to 80
- Have at least a 20 pack-year history -- meaning they smoked one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years
- Current smoker or quit within the past 15 years
"It starts now at the primary care doctor's office," El-Mahdy said.
"We have a really thoughtful discussion about what's the quickest way to get this person, diagnosed, staged and treated, and instead of having consults to five or six different physicians, you have kind of a consortium of doctors that are seeing that patient, reviewing their CAT scans, reviewing their data and recommending, ‘okay, we're going to go for a biopsy, and then we're going to go for a PET CT or a brain MRI’ or whatever imaging that needs to be done -- breathing tests -- and then getting them through to the right person," Dr. El-Mahdy said.
Dr. El Mahdy cautions that there are other risk factors, beyond smoking, which contribute to lung cancer as well, specifically:
- Secondhand smoke
- Radon gas exposure
- Air pollution
- Asbestos exposure
- Family history of lung cancer
The survival rates reflect how far research has come.
"I never thought I would come to that day where I see somebody with a stage four lung cancer, who's who I still following my clinic several years later," Dr. El-Mahdy said.
Now folks like Barlow can keep making plans for the future.
"It's important [for people to get tested and screened] because I'm sitting here today," Barlow said. "You got to do it for yourself or your loved ones."
One other development in lung cancer treatment is the navigational bronchoscopy and robotic bronchoscopy that doctors can utilize. The technology allows doctors to do biopsies on nodules that were not well-reachable before, providing new ways to improve survival rates.
Sentara Health locations offering low-dose CT scans:
- Sentara Careplex Hampton
- Sentara Leigh Hospital
- Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
- Sentara Obici Hospital
- Sentara Brock Cancer Center
- Sentara Princess Anne Hospital
- Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital
- Sentara Albemarle Medical Center
Click here for more information on how to schedule your screening.
Sentara patients will also be connected to a patient navigator if they are seeking more help. The navigator’s job is to help the patient make appointments, contact insurance, and coordinate care.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
