“If You Have Lungs, You Can Get Lung Cancer” | Early Detection, Screening Cost & Stigma | Shira Boehler

<p>Shira Boehler's family is full of doctors, and every one of them told her not to get the full-body MRI. She canceled the appointment repeatedly herself, until her husband rebooked it one time too many and she finally went.</p><p><br /></p><p>The scan found a 3.8 centimeter mass in her right lung and labeled it a minor finding, with a note to correlate with symptoms. She had none. She was running six miles a day, the picture of health, and had never smoked. A follow-up CT months later showed the mass had grown, and on the Monday she walked into a pulmonary specialist's office she was told she had an invasive adenocarcinoma. She told him it was probably an EMR error. One week later, surgeons removed half her right lung to treat her cancer.</p><p><br /></p><p>Samira Daswani, host of Patient from Hell and founder of Manta Cares, welcomes lung cancer survivor and bestselling author Shira Boehler for an eye-opening conversation on the part that comes after the story, which is why almost nobody in Shira's position gets caught this early. Screening guidelines currently cover people over 50 with a twenty-pack-per-year smoking history, and fewer than one in five of them actually get scanned, in part because the criteria require disclosing something patients are ashamed of. Shira has been working the problem from both ends since her treatment, negotiating cash prices at imaging centers down to a fraction of what she paid and funding new scans for people who can't cover them through the nonprofit organization she founded, Cancer Doesn't Care.</p><p><br /></p><p>In this episode, Samira and Shira discuss:</p><ul><li><p>Why lung cancer is often diagnosed too late</p></li><li><p>The importance of early detection and low-dose CT screening</p></li><li><p>How people who have never smoked can still develop lung cancer</p></li><li><p>The stigma surrounding lung cancer diagnosis</p></li><li><p>Current lung cancer screening guidelines</p></li><li><p>Insurance coverage, healthcare access, policy reform</p></li><li><p>How artificial intelligence may improve cancer screening</p></li><li><p>Why patient advocacy is becoming increasingly important in modern healthcare</p></li></ul><p><br /></p><p>Chapters</p><p>00:00 Introduction</p><p>01:00 The Full-Body Scan That Changed Everything</p><p>03:32 Diagnosed With Lung Cancer Despite Having No Symptoms</p><p>05:30 Access, Privilege &amp; Why Early Detection Isn't Equal</p><p>07:10 Building the Cancer Doesn't Care Foundation</p><p>09:21